4 '16 On a gaseous Compound 



acid condenses so large a proportion of ammonia; carbonic 

 acid only condtnses half as much, and yet does not form a 

 neutral salt. The great saturating and neutralizing powers 

 of this gas are singular circumstances, and particularly 

 singular when compared with those of muriatic acid gas. 



Tn consequence of its being decomposed by water, I have 

 not been able to ascertain whether it is capable of com- 

 bining with the fixed alkalies- Added to solutions of these 

 substances it was absorbed, and carbonic acid gas was dis- 

 engaged by an acid. 



1 have made the experiment on the native carbonates of 

 lime and barvtes, but the gas did not decompose these bo- 

 dies. This indeed might be expected, since quick-lime, I 

 find, does not absorb the gas : a cubic inch of it, exposed 

 to the action of lime in a tube over mercury, was only di- 

 minished in two days to nine- tenths of a cubic inch, and 

 no further absorption was afterwards observed to take place. 

 But even this circumstance does not demonstrate that the 

 gas has no affinity for lime, and is not capable of combin- 

 ing with it ; for on making a similar experiment with car- 

 bonic acid, substituting this gas for the new compound, the 

 result was the same ; in two days only about one-tenth of 

 a cubic inch was absorbed. 



Though the gas is decomposed by water, yet it appears to 

 be absorbed unaltered by common spirits of wine, which 

 contains so considerable a quantity of water; it imparted 

 its peculiar odour to the spirit, and its property of aflccting 

 the eyes ; five measures of the spirit condensed sixty mea- 

 sures of the gas. 



It is also absorbed by the fuming liquor of arsenic, and 

 by the oxymuriate of sulphur. 



The former appeared to require for saturation ten times 

 its own volume; six measures of the liquor condensed 

 about sixty of the gas. The liquor thus impregnated was 

 thrown into water, and a pretty appearance was produced 

 by the sudden escape of bubbles of the gas : had not its in- 

 tolerable smell convinced me that the gas was unaltered, I 

 should not have conceived that it could pass through water 

 undcconi posed. 



I catniot account for the assertion of MM. Gay Lussac 

 and Thenard and of Mr. Murray, that oxymuriatic gas 

 docs not, when under the influence of light, exert any ac- 

 tion on carbonic oxide : I was inclined at first to suppose 

 that the difference between -their results and mine, might 

 be owing to their not having exposed the gasses together to 

 bright sunshine; but I have been obliged to relinquish this 



idea. 



