Experiments on a solid Compoimd oflod'ms cuid Cxy'^en. 345 



From all that has been said on this sii})ject, I have no doubt 

 that the general conclusion of my readers will be — that the esta- 

 blishment which I have attempted to describe is a model of 

 liberalitv, which reflects the greatest honour on the government 

 under whose enlightened policy the foundations of the ceconomy 

 of the mines were laid. 



LXIII. Some 'Experhnents on a solid Compound of Iodine and 

 Oxygen, and on its chemical Jgencies. By Sir Humphry 

 Davy, LL.D. F.R.S.* 



In the two papers containing researches on iodine which the 

 Royal Society has done me the honour of publishing in the 

 Transactions, I have described a class of bodi<?s consisting of 

 iodine, oxygen, and different bases analogous to the hvper-oxy- 

 muriates. In the last of these papers I mentioned that I had 

 not been able to procure any binary combination of iodine and 

 oxygen from these compounds, cither by the method proposed 

 by M. Gay-Lussac, namely, the action of sulpliuric acid on the 

 oxyiode of barium, or by other methods of my own institu- 

 tion; and that in experiments on the effects of the acids on the 

 oxyiodes, nevv combinations only were formed. I have lately 

 resumed this inquiry; and by pursuing a new and entirely different 

 plan of operation, I have at last succeeded in combiuiug oxvgen 

 and iodine. In the following pages I shall describe the circum- 

 stances which led me to ascertain the existence of this compoujid, 

 and I shall detail some experiments on its analysis and its che- 

 mical agencies. 



In the course of my researches, I observed, that when a so- 

 lution of the compound of iodine, and chlorine was poured into 

 alkaline solutions, or oven into certain muriatic solutions, tlie 

 precipitate was an oxyiode ; and this fact seemed to indicate 

 that iodine had a stronger attraction for oxygen than chlorine ; 

 iodine, likewise, has an attraction for chlorine : it appeared, 

 therefore, extremely probable, that euchlorine, or the gaseous 

 combination of oxygen and chlorine, would be decomposed bv 

 heat, and two componnds formed, one of oxvgen and iodine, and 

 the otlicr of iodine and chlorine, or that a triple compound would 

 be j)rodnced from whicli cldorine could be easily separated ; and 

 on submittint^ the idea to the test of experiment, I found that 

 I had not l)''cn deceived. 



To produce tiie compound of oxvgen and iodine, it is neces- 

 sary merely to bring the euchlorine and iodine together at the 



* From the Pliilosopliical Transactions for 1813, parlii. 



ordinary 



