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394 Foreign Literature and Science. 
posit water in the receiver, but it was filled with dense fumes 
of muriatic acid, which announce the presence of water 
Exper. 3.—In treating chloride of sulphur, cold, with po- 
tassium in a bent tube under mercury, muriatic acid gas was 
obtained, and the residuum appeared to contain chloride of 
assium, (muriate of potash,) and sulphate of potash, min- 
gled with uncombined sulphur. Now, if, as the authors re- 
mark, chloride of sulphur is composed of nothing but sul- 
phur and chlorine, and the latter is regarded as a simple sub-- 
stance, how can muriatic acid and sulphate of potash be 
formed by the action of potassium alone ? 
«per. 4.—Proto-chloride of mercury, treated with heat, 
with potassium, in a bent and well luted. tu be, produced a 
disengagement of gas, which was ascertaine d to be azote. 
The residuum consisted of chloride of potassium and metallic 
mercury. Chloride of silver treated in the same manner, or 
strongly heated with metallic zinc, gave the same results. 
These experiments made with potassium, occasioned ag oe 
rupture of the tubes, with explosion, by which ¢ one of the two 
operators was seriously injured. 
Exper. 6.—In decomposing corrosive . sublimate (deuto- 
chloride of mercury) in a tube of iron, filled with turnings of 
the same metal, and strongly heated, there was also a libera- 
tion of azotic gas. The interior *s the tube exhibited, after 
operation, many globules of mercury, and an abundant 
quantity of chloride ef iron. Neither of the two existing 
pecs can account for the production of this gas. 
r. 9.—Liquid muriatic acid (hydrochloric) exposed 
to the actin of the voltaic current, gave, at the negative pole, 
a great quantity of hydrogen, and at the positive pole no gas 
was disengaged. In admitting, as is the case in the decom- 
position of all the acids by the pile, the simultaneous decom- 
ition of water, we cannot, according ‘to the views of 
essrs. Macaire and De La Rive, explain the absence of ox 
ygen in this case, except by admitting its combination. swith 
muriatic acid to form chlorine, which: remains dissolved in 
‘the water. 
stper. 10.—A concentrated and recent solution of chle- 
rine in water, exposed to the current of the pile, gave a great 
oxygen at the positive pole, and very little hydro- 
Sich the negative | Was the chlorine seiolved into oxygen | 
dinwed i itself at the positive pole, uriatic acid 
which remained in # galanin ? _or, did the byogen of the de~ . 
