412 New Inquiries into the Nature of the Liquor obtained 
the liquor: if it were sulphur, this could not take place. Be-~ 
sides, when we do not use too much water, we see the milky li- 
quid gradually become transparent, and drops of liquor are col- 
feeted at the bottom of the vessel; they have the same appear- 
ance, the same transparency, volatility, taste, and in short th 
same properties in every respect above enumerated. 
Liquid sulphurous acid effects no change in it: two grammes 
of liquor kept in contact for about two months, and frequently 
agitated with 60 grammes of concentrated sulphuric acid, exhi- 
bited no alteration. 
The sulphurous acid gas causes no kind of alteration, as we 
may be assured by placing some in centact with azotic gas sa- 
turated with liquer. 
It burns without: leaving any charry residue. Four grammes’ 
were burnt in a porcelain saucer: no traces of charcoal were 
discovered, but merely a little sulphur. The flame was white, 
violet at the extremity, and shaded now and then with red: it 
gave out a very strong smell of sulphurous acid, 
When it was volatilized out of the contact of the air, it left 
(although it was absolutely colourless and limpid) a small black 
residue which might be taken for eharcoal, but in such a 
small quantity that it would be difficult to decide upon it: there 
are only some distinct traces of it when we act upon 17 
grammes. 
The water of the matrass of the apparatus above described 
for the rectification of this liquor was colourless, diaphanous, 
and had a peculiar smell which seemed to be that of the ethere- 
ated liquor very dilute, and not that of sulphuretted hydrogen: 
it was water, holding in solution a very small quantity of li- 
quor. ‘The water contained in the retort was transparent, and 
had the same smell, but» was-slightly citron-coloured. At the 
bottom of the retort was a yellow, friable and crystalline matter, 
which seemed to be nothing but sulphur. There was 15-3 
grammes. 
M. Amadée Berthollet inferred the presence of hydrogen in 
this liquor from very strong analogies, { demonstrated this fact 
in an incontestable manner by isolating the hydrogen by means 
of a body which seizes upon the sulphur—iron or copper for in- 
stancé—and the latter in preference, because it does not possess 
the property of combining with the carbon, which I hoped to iso- 
late at the same time, if the liquer contained any. The fol- 
lowing is the apparatus I used: 
I took 20-13 grammes of very fine copper wire, and introduced 
it coiled up into a glass tube luted externally. This tube passed 
through a furnace. To one of the extremities was fitted a small 
glass retort containing ten grammes of ethereated liquor: vi 
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