on a new detonating Substance. 325 
same quantity of chlorine, whether dissolved in a large or a 
small quantity of solution of muriatic acid, destroyed: the 
colour of the same quantity of the blue liquor. 
On this circumstance it was easy to found a method of 
determining the precise quantity of chlorine produced in 
solution of muriatic acid, from a given quantity of the 
compound ; namely, by comparing the power of a given 
quantity of muriatic acid, containing a known quantity of 
chlorine, to destroy the colour of solutions of indigo, with 
that of the muriatic acid, in which the compound had pro- 
duced chlorine. ¥ 
Two experiments were made. In the first, a grain of 
the compound was exposed on a large surface beneath a 
tube inverted in about six cubic inches of solution of mu- 
riatic acid, and the chlorine absorbed by agitation as it was 
formed. The acid so treated destroyed the colour of seven 
cubic inches of a diluted sulphuric solution of indigo; and 
it was found, by several comparative trials, that exactly the 
-same effect was produced in another equal portion of the 
same solution of indigo, by 2°2 cubic inches of chlorine 
dissolved in the same quantity of muriatic acid. 
In the second experiment, 1°3 cubic inch of chlorine 
was evolved in the gaseous form, the thermometer being 
at 58°, and barometer at 30°33, and suffered to pass into 
the atmosphere; and by the test of the solution of indigo, 
it was found that *75 of a cubic inch remained dissolved in 
the acid. 
Now, if the mean of these two experiments be taken, it 
appears that 1°61 grain of chlorine are produced in solu- 
tion of muriatic acid by the action of a grain of the come 
pound ; and calculating on the data just now referred to, 
the compound must consist of 91 of chlorine and nine of 
azote in weight, which in volume will be nearly 119 to 30; 
and this estimation differs as little as might be expected 
from that gained by the action of mercury upon the com- 
pound, 
It may fairly be concluded, that M. Gay-Lussac’s prin- 
ciple of the combination of gaseous bodies, in definite 
volumes, strictly applies to this compound, and that it 
really consists of four volumes of chlorine to one of azote ; 
and the volumes likewise exactly coincide with the laws of 
definite proportions ; and the detonating compound may be 
regarded as composed of one proportion of azote 26, and 
four proportions of chlorine 261. ’ 
_ TL attempted a comparative experiment on the proportions 
in the compound, by estimating the quantity of azote pro- 
X 3 duced 
