1819.] with Bases and indifferent Substances. 43 



with heat and with water. There exist likewise other solid 

 compounds, which contain heat, and, as it sterns, light likewise 

 (for where heat exists, light may unite also). To these belong 

 sulphur, &c. 



How necessary heat is to many bodies to render them perma- 

 nent appears from carbonic acid (thermate of carbonic acid), 

 which is a simple compound of heat, or another basis, and would 

 probably be decomposed, as alcohol and several similar therm- 

 ates are, if it were possible to deprive it of the heat which 

 gives it the gaseous state, without, at the same time, uniting it 

 with another equivalent basis ; for from the relation of carbon 

 to oxygen and to its compounds ; namely, oxygen gas (thermate 

 of lightoxide) and oxymuriatic acid, it is evident that only a 

 weak attraction exists between them, which is overcome by 

 light, since carbon is only able to separate the light-or-fireoxide 

 (the basis of oxygen) by the assistance of heat ; for heat is 

 favourable to combustion, and occasions it in consequence of 

 the attraction between carbon and lightoxide. The union 

 of carbon with oxygen, therefore, can only take place in conse- 

 quence of the influence of a third substance ; and for that reason 

 carbonic acid is always a compound of heat or another basis, 

 which of itself has too little affinity for oxygen to decompose 

 oxygen gas.* 



As carbonic acid and almost all the gases are to be con- 

 sidered as compounds of heat, there exist in like manner 

 many other bodies, which are composed of three or four consti- 

 tuents, in which all the ingredients urge to union in order to 

 satisfy their attraction for each other. Thus all oxides (as of 



* From this proceeds in part the enigmatical relation of oxymuriatic acid to 

 carbon, notwithstanding the great mass of heat which it contains. Oxymuriatic 

 acid is a double compound of light-or-fireoxide and muriatic acid, just as muriatic 

 acid is a compound of muriatic acid and water. Now as carbon and 0x3 gen unite 

 only by means of heat or some other basis, still less is carbon capable of decom- 

 posing the (riple compound in which oxygen exists in oxymuriatic acid (namely, 

 light, or the basis of lightoxide, lightoxide in muriatic acid ; and this double com- 

 pound again united with heat), even when assisted by heat ; because the more heat 

 is thrown into this acid, the firmer do its constituents remain united ; for oxymu- 

 riatic acid in its state of thermate is saturated with heat after the manner ofa base. 

 As in the preparation of oxymuriatic acid, the oxygen of the nitric acid or oxide 

 of manganese separates the water from the hydrate of muriatic acid, and unites 

 with the acid into adouble compound, which we call oxj muriatic acid ; it follows 

 that muriatic acid has a stronger affinity for oxygen than for water. Carbon and 

 heat, therefore, would be able to decompose the hydrate of muriatic acid more 

 eaiily (hau oxymuriatic acid, even if this last had not so strong an attraction to 

 heat as it has The combination would likewi-e take place, and carbon would 

 separate tin- light from t!ie lightoxide, if muriatic acid had a strong affinity for 

 cnrb.inic oxide, and if the carbon, in consequence of its affinity for heat, were 

 capable of assuming the gaseous slate. We can draw no conclusion from the ther- 

 mate of carbonic oxide, because in it the oxygen seems to serve as a medium 

 of union bet ween the carbon and the chlorine. The reason w'ly carbon, the metals, 

 hydrogen, <iilpliur, and all the other combustibles, have such dill'crent relations to 

 oxygen, and when united with that piinciple in the same volume and the same pro- 

 portion, form sometimes acids, sometimes bases, and sometimes indifferent substances, 

 I propose to show in another place, in an article on the attractions of the element- 

 ary bodies. 



