204 Chemical and ~M'tneralogical Nomenclature. 



thefe compounds hydrogenatcd fulpburets : this appellation 

 does not exprcfs the composition. I employ the term hefa- 

 ticated to exprcfs this compolition. Berthollet has difco- 

 vered that fixed alkaline hepars, when diffolved, or even 

 moift, are always in this ftate, and consequently, that an 

 alka ; inc hepar cannot exift but in a dry ftate. 



In the cafe before us, we fee the confufion and perplexity 

 occafioned by a ftrict adherence to the rule recommended by 

 Lavoifier *, that a conformity or connection fhould be main- 

 tained between the names of a bafis and its compounds: in 

 fome cafes it is highly proper, and hence the different de- 

 grees of oxygenation of certain acids are very properly indi- 

 cated by a flight alteration of the termination of the name of 

 each, as fulphureous and fulpburic ; but thefe names indicate 

 onlv extreme jlatcs, the firft only the fmalleft degree of oxy- 

 genation conftituting an acid, and the laft the ftate ok perfect 

 faturation: now, this fame acid commonly occurs in neither 

 of thefe dates, but in a ftate participating more or lefs of 

 both ; thefe names, therefore, applied to it when thus circum- 

 ftanced are falfe; and as in this intermediate ftate it has al- 

 wavs been known by the name of vitriolic acid, I think this 

 name fhould ftill be retained. Nay, the fulphureous acid is 

 itfelf capable of two very different dates, as may be feen in 

 the 6th volume of De Machy's edition of Junker, p. J43. 

 So the term nitric is very proper to denote the full faturation 

 of the nitrous bafis with oxygen. But the term nitrous, cm- 

 ployed to denote the fmalleft degree of oxygenation neceffary 

 to convert this bafis into an acid, is improper, as it has ever- 

 more conveyed a different idea, {fence I exprcfs this loweft 

 extreme of oxygenation by the term mepbito nitrous, as the 

 radical primary bafis may be called mepbitc, or mephitic air, 

 inftead of the new coined name azot. And the term nitrous 

 acid may ftill denote, as i-t has evermore done, the mean ftate 

 of oxygenation ; that indeed in which it is ufuaity found, and 

 for which the French fchool have no name but that of one or 

 other of the extreme flutes, which muft therefore be falfely 

 applied. The term epinitrous air, introduced by the learned 

 and ingenious Eickfon, may be ufed to denote what Do&cr 



* Lavoifier, p. 71 and 73. 



Prieftley 



