Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 63 



Now, with respect to there being no room for the disengagement 

 of hydrogen, it remains for Mr. Ritchie to prove either that, under 

 such circumstances, hydrogen requires "any room" for its evolution, 

 or that it does not make room for itself during the experiment. 

 It does not appear that he employed any means for ascertaining whe- 

 ther hydrogen was in reality evolved, or not ; but that having filled the 

 cylinder with water and sulphuric acid, he concluded that it could not 

 possibly be given out. But the only obstacles to its disengagement 

 would be the difficult compressibility of the water, and the compara- 

 tive inaptitude of that fluid to dissolve the hydrogen. From the 

 lately discovered facts, however, respecting the compressibility, even 

 to liquefaction, of many of the gases, there are strong grounds for 

 concluding, that, under such great pressure as the disengagement of 

 hydrogen by the mutual action of the zinc, water, and sulphuric acid, 

 in a close vessel, must itself produce, aided by some degree of solvent 

 power in the water, the gas would become condensed in the water, 

 while its oxygen combined with the zinc. 



Supposing that muriatic acid and sulphuret of iron were to be in- 

 closed in an air-tight vessel so as to fill it, it is certain, from Mr. Fa- 

 raday's experiments on the liquefaction of the gases*, that on opening 

 the vessel, if the requisite proportions had been employed, we should 

 find that the sulphuret had been dissolved, and a solution of iron 

 formed. And supposing that an opake vessel had been employed, 

 through which the operation of the agents could not be observed, sup- 

 posing also that no further information had been communicated respect- 

 ing the experiment than Mr. Ritchie has given upon his, we might 

 reason, that since there was "no room for the disengagement of hy- 

 drogen," therefore the sulphur and the iron must have dissolved in the 

 muriatic acid, without oxidation or other previous change of condition j 

 whereas the truth would be, that the hydrogen equivalent to the oxy- 

 gen combined with the iron, would have become united with the sul- 

 phur, and remained in the solution in the form of liquid sulphuretted 

 hydrogen until the pressure was removed by the opening of the vessel, 

 when it would assume the gaseous state. 



It seems expedient, therefore, that Mr. Ritchie should ascertain, in 

 repeating the experiment, whether the hydrogen is not in reality dis- 

 solved in the solution of zinc found in the cylinder after the experi- 

 ment. But possibly the hydrogen, or a portion of it, under pressure 

 and electric influence, may have entered into combination with the 

 copper, or with some of the constituents of the brass or of the cement. 

 These bodies, therefore, it also seems proper to examine with the view 

 of determining this question. 



The statement that the dissolved zinc cannot be combined with 

 oxygen in the solution, rests entirely on the assumption that the hy- 

 drogen of the water cannot be disengaged. But no account is given 

 of the properties possessed by, or of the efl'ects of reagents upon, this 

 remarkable solution of zinc ; for aught that ap))cars in Mr, Ritchie's 

 statement, the metal may exist in it in tiie form of oxide ; and if so, the 

 equivalent of hydrogen must have been liberated, and would be found 



• See Phil. Trans. 1823; or Phil. Mag. vol. Ixii. p. 41«. 



