On the Colours used hi Pahitbigly the Ancients. S49 



{».nd the azote, remaining combined by pairs in each particle of 

 caiore ; so that a volume of this gas is equivalent to two volumes 

 of another g-as relative to combinations ; and that if the tetra- 

 hedrons of the chlore shall all be separated from each other, we 

 shall obtain, by the decomposition of the euchlorine, six volnmes 

 of chlore and two volumes of oxygen, precisely as we find in 

 the residue from the decomposition of ammoniacal gas, tWe par- 

 ticles of which have the same representative form with that of 

 the euchlorine, six volumes of oxygen and two of azote. 



The results which I have just indicated form but a very small 

 part of those which we may deduce from the consideration of 

 the representative forms of the particles of bodies applied to the 

 determination of the proportions of inorganic compounds. The 

 chemistry of organized bodies also presents numerous applica- 

 tion of this theory ; but it is in this respect particularly that 

 there are many analyses and calulations to make for completing 

 it. I have nevertheless drawn several determinations relative to 

 the comj:)osition of different circumstances drawn from the ve- 

 getable kingdom, which agree too strongly with the results of 

 experience to leave any doubts as to the utility of which it may 

 be in this part of chemistry. 



LXIII , Some Experiments and Observations on the Colours used 

 in Painting hj the ^indents. By Sir HuAirHUV Davy, 

 LL.D. RR.S* 



f^ I. Introduction. 



JL HE importance the Greeks attached to pictures, the estima- 

 tion in wiiich their great painters were held, the high prices paid 

 for their most celebrated productions, and the emulation existing 

 between different states with regard to the possession of them, 

 prove that painting was one of the arts most cultivated in an- 

 cient Greece : the mutilated remains of the Greek statues, not- 

 withstanding the efforts of modern artists during three centuries 

 of civilization, are still contemplated as the models of perfection 

 in sculpture ; and we have no rea-on for supposing an inferior 

 degree of excellence in the sister art, amongst a people to whom 

 genius and taste were a kind of birthright, and who possessed a 

 perception, which seemed almost instinfetive, of th.e dignified, 

 the beautiful, and the suldlme. 



The works of the great masters of Greece are unfortunately 

 entirely lost. They disappeared from their native country d«- 

 ling the wars waged by the Romans with the succe^sors of 

 Alexander, and the later Greek rejmblics ; and were destroyed 



* From d)c Pliilowpliical TraRsactioiis for 1815, p«rt i. 



cither 



