On a Comhinalion of Oxymuriatic Gas, ^c. 1 3 



tain extent a conductor of the electrical fluid. The author 

 multiplied and varied his experiments upon diamonds: all 

 of them tended to prove that the faces parallel to the laminie 

 of which their substance is composed are electrified more 

 easily and more strongly, but do not produce any phos- 

 phorescence when they are exposed to the light, even to 

 that of the direct rays; whereas the faces, cither natural 

 or artificial, formed by the united edges of these laminae, 

 are feebly electrified by friction, lose their eleclricity much 

 sooner, and are at the same time very phosphorescent. The 

 importance and novelty of these various results have in- 

 duced us to explain them here as fully as possible; at the 

 same time the work itself will be perused with much grati- 

 fication. 



II. On a Cnmlmaiion of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen Gas. 

 By HuMPHKY Daw, Esq. LL.D. Sec. R.S. Prof. 

 Cliem. R.I.* 



X SHALL beg permission to lay before the Society the ac- 

 count of some experiments on a compound of oxvinuriatic 

 gas and oxygen gas, which, 1 trust, will be found to illus- 

 trate an interesting branch of chemical inquiry, and which 

 offer some extraordinary and novel results. 



I was led to make these experiments in coitscquence of 

 the diflerence between the properties of oxymur.atic gas pre- 

 pared in different modes; It would occupy a grectl length of 

 time to state the whole progress o1" this investigation. It 

 will, I conceive, be more interesting that I s'lould imme- 

 diately refer to the facts ; most of which have been wit- 

 nessed by members of this body, belonging to the Com- 

 mittee of Chemistry of the I'oval Institution. 



The oxymuriatic gas prepared i'rom manganese, either by 

 mixing it with a muriate and acting upon it by sulphuric 

 acid, or by mixing it with munauc acid, is when the oxide 

 of manganese is pure, and, whether collected over water or 

 mercury, uniform in its properties; its colour is a pale vel- 

 lowish green; water takes up about twice its volume, and 

 scarcely gains any colour; the metals burn in it readily; it 

 combines with hydri'gen without any deposition of mois- 

 ture: it does not act on nilrous gas or muriatic acid, or 

 carbonic oxide, or sulphureous gases, when they have been 

 carefully dried. It is the substance which I employed in 



• From Philosophical Transr.ciions for IS) 1, Part I. 



all 



