On definite Proportions. 383. 
much oxygen as is contained in the potass; and the same 
must be true of other neutral hyperoxymuriates. The 
slight variation of the experiment from the law is very 
easily understood, from the difficulty of purifying thehy- 
peroxymuriate from the simple muriate, and the material 
influence of such an impurity on the result. 
We are next to inquire in what proportion the oxygen of 
the muriatic acid, which is left behind, stands to that of 
the potass and to the portion which has escaped as a gas. 
To judge from the analogy of the other acids, it ought to 
be a multiple by 2 or 3 of the quantity in the potass. That 
the multiplier cannot be greater than 3 is very obvious, 
‘since any greater number would afford a quantity greater 
than that of the whole acid: and if 3 were the number, 
the acid would consist of 11°64 of its basis to 88°36 of 
oxygen, and the other known degrees of oxygenization 
would be multiples by 14 and 3; which is contrary to the 
progression that has hitherto been observed. Consequently 
the muriatic acid can only contain twice a3 much oxygen 
as the base by which it is saturated, and must consist of 
41°092 of its radical and 58°908 of oxygen. It is how- 
ever possible that this proportion may be erroneous as far 
as 1 per cent. since the analysis of the muriate of silver 
can only be depended on to +5, of the whole, and the 
quantity of oxygen may be 1 percent. greater, and that of 
the radical as much less than that which is here laid down): 
but this inaccuracy is of no consequence to the general 
question of the degrees of oxygenization. 
It is obvious that these degrees may be expressed by the 
numbers }, 14,-and4; the third step, or the multiple 
by 2, being absent. If we might infer, from the analogy | 
of sulphur, that the multiple by 14 is here also a true mul- 
tiple by 6 of a lower degree, we should have in the -hy- 
pothetical protoxide of the muriatic radical, 100 parts of 
this substance combined with 35°843 of oxygen. Perhaps 
a.combination of this kind may hereafter be discovered in 
the muriatic ether: for itis more probable that an oxide 
enters into the composition of this substance, just as the 
nitrous oxide enters into that of nitrous ether, than that 
the acid itself should be retained by the component parts 
of the ether with greater force than by the ordinary bases 
which attract it the most powerfully. According to these 
computations, we obtain for the different states of the mu- 
riatic acid, the following proportions, 
: a.) Com- 
