‘382 On definite Proportions. 
will therefore be permitted me, to extend the law also to 
the muriatic acid, and to the acids with compound radicals. 
In these last we shall be able to observe the transition from 
inorganic to organized bodies, and the modifications of 
the same Jaws which nature follows in both orders of sub- 
stances. 
VIIT. Murratic AND Hyrrroxmuniatic Actps. 
The muriatic acid contains oxygen, and in such a pro- 
portion, that in the muriates the oxygen of the acid is twice 
as much as that of the lase. Inthe hyperoxymuriates, the 
acid contains 8 times as much oxygen as the base, and emits, 
ly the operation of heat, 6 times as much oxygen as the base 
contains. F 
I exposed 4 grammes of hyperoxymuriate of potass, 
which [ had dried very quickly in a hot sand bath, to a 
high temperature in a small retort ; 1 caused the oxygen 
gas which escaped to pass through a glass tube, filled with 
muriate of lime, of which the weight was accurately as- 
eertgined, and continued the experiment until the retort 
was red hot, and no more oxygen gas escaped. The small 
retort had lost 1:5525 gr. of its weight. During the 
whole operation, no trace of moisture was perceptible on 
its neck ; but in the curvature a sublimate was deposited,. 
which was perhaps carried up mechanically by the gas, 
weighing exactly ‘Oi gr., and consisting of hyperoxy- 
muriate still undecomposed. The tube filled with muriate 
of lime, when the oxygen had been blown out of it by 
means of a very dry bottle of caoutchouc, had gained -005 
in weight. Consequently the loss of oxygen amounted 
to 1°5475 gr. The saline mass left behind weighed 
24375 gr.; and, according to the analysis of the mu- 
niate of potass, must have consisted of +8913 gr. of 
muriatic acid, and 1'5462 of potass. Consequently +8913 
gr. of muriatic acid had been combined with 1°5475 
gr. of oxygen, which gives 173°62 of oxygen to 100 of 
muriatic acid. Now since the oxymuriatic acid contains, 
according to Davy and Gay-Lussac, as much oxygen as the 
common muriatic acid reqzires in the bases which it satu- 
rates, and consequently 100 parts of muriatic acid take up 
29°454 of oxygen in order to form oxymuriatic acid, it 
follows that 173:62 ought to be a multiple of 29°454 by 
some whole number. In fact 29°454 x 6=176:724, which 
differs only by 3-1 from the experiment. We may there- 
fore consider this experiment as a proof that the hyperoxy~ 
muriate of potass affords, by the effect of heat, 6 times ie 
miuc 
