"Pyrotartareous, and Py'roligneous Ac'nh. 4* 



forms with lime ; and he called it the tartareous empyreu- 

 rnatic acid. Thefe ideas, adopted in 1787 by the author-; of 

 the Methodical Nomenclature, induced them to etfftingnifh 

 this acid by the name of the pyrotartareous acid. Since that 

 period, chemifts have continued to confider this acid as a dif- 

 t-incl fpeeies, and no one has fubjected it to a new examina- 

 tion. 



IV. Chara&ers given to the Vyrottgneous Acid. 

 Boerhaave firft made known, under the name of ac'ul fp'irit 

 of wood, the product diftilled from woody bodies; and he 

 even compared it to a kind of vinegar. M.'Goetlinghas 

 given a particular hiftdry of it in CreU's Chemical journal 

 for the year T779. Guyton made it known afterwards, under 

 the name of the ligneous acid, in the firft part of the Dic- 

 tTonnabx Encyclopedique, published in 1786. He collected 

 all the information then acquired refpecting this acid, ac- 

 cording to the experiments made by the Academy of Dijon. 

 Every kind of wood examined has hitherto i'urniihed by dif- 

 tillation the fame acid; the difference in regard to colour, 

 favour, acrid odour, and particularly that of faline com- 

 pounds, formed by the liquid diftilled from wood, have made 

 it to be diftinguhTied from every other acid: in the Methodical 

 Nomenclature it has been called the pyroligneous aeid, and 

 in my Syftem of Chemiftry I clafied it with the pyromueous 

 and pyrotartareous acids, as forming with them a kind of 

 acids eompofed of fpeeies analogous to each other in the 

 ratio of their identic origin, and of fome comparative pro- 

 perties manifeftly depending on their empyreumatic ftate. 

 The characters adopted to diftinguifh the pyro-li<>neous aeid 

 were, its fmoky fmcll, its reddifl) colour, its property of 

 giving a lading ftain to Wood, the- lalts which it formed with 

 alkaline bales, and the elective attractions which it obeyed. 

 In giving a fyliemaiic explanation of the properties of this 

 acid, as well as in regard to thole of the pyromueous and 

 pyrotartareous acid, the want of more accurate knowledge 

 was always felt; characters luiiiciently finking and well de- 

 fined, proper to diftinguifh thefe three acids from each other, 

 could not be found ; and even after they had been claffed 

 Ipgether into 9 difunet genus, on account of their empyreu- 

 (-» % uiatic 



