jg Berzelius on a new Mineral Body, [Jan. 



■was half filled with it. I then introduced seleniuretted hydrogen 

 gas which had passed through a tube filled with anhydrous 

 muriate of lime. The two gases formed a white smoke, which 

 was soon deposited both on the mercury and the glass, and 

 formed a mass of a pale-red colour, in which no traces of crys- 

 tallization could be observed by the microscope. I cannot decide 

 -whether the red colour depends uponc he presence of a trace of 

 air mixed with the ammoniacal gas ; but that circumstance is at 

 least possible. The fixed salt, when dissolved in water, gave 

 that liquid a deep-red colour. 



Barytes, strontian, lime, and magnesia, all form soluble hydro- 

 seleniurets. The hydrate of magnesia mixed with water, throug:h 

 which a current of seleniui2tted hydrogen gas is passed, is 

 dissolved easily by means of an excess of the gas. The solutions 

 of the other earths mixed with hydroseleniuret of ammonia form 

 flesh-coloured precipitates, with "the exception of alumina, which 

 gives a precipitate of a deep-red colour. As the hquid retains 

 no trace of seleniuretted hydrogen, it is to be presumed that 

 these precipitates are real hydroseleniurets. All the metalhc 

 solutions are precipitated by the alkahne hydroseleniurets. The 

 precipitates formed in the salts of zinc, manganese, cerium, and 

 probably likewise of uranium, are hydroseleniurets. They are 

 speedily decomposed by the access of air, and their pale-red 

 colour tjecomes at the same time much deeper. The salts of the 

 other metals are reduced to metallic seleniurets, and the precipi- 

 tates which they produce are black or dark-brown, and assume 

 the metallic lustre when strongly pressed by a pohshed hema- 

 tites. 



Before quitting this subject, I must be allowed to make an 

 observation relative to the nomenclature of these combinations. 

 Chemists have begun in the English and French nomenclatures 

 to call the combinations of sulphuretted hydrogen with bases 

 hi/diusiilp/iates, to indicate the same theoretical relation between 

 sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphuric acid, which, in the new 

 hypothesis, respecting the nature of oxymuriatic gas, is consi- 

 dered as established between hydrochloric (muriatic) acid and 

 chloric acid. But without entering into any discussion respect- 

 ing this last hypothesis, I think I may state that the new names 

 given to sulphuretted hydrogen gas and its combinations with 

 bases are contrary to the spirit of the nomenclature ; since, when 

 hydrogen is taken away from hydrosulphuric acid and from the 

 hydrosulphates, the residuum is not sulphuric acid and sulphates, 

 but sulphur and sulphurets. I think, therefore, that the old 

 name expresses the nature of the substance which it is intended 

 to indicate much better than the new ; and that this change oi' 

 nomenclature has been made without sufficient reason. This is 

 the reason why in this memoir I have not adopted the new 

 names, either for the hydrosulphurets, hydroseleniurets, hydro- 

 tellurets, or for a variety of other substances ; and I think that 



