148 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Feb, 



be accounted for from the supposition of a portion of water being 

 combined with the acid in the gas beyond that which is strictly 

 essential to its constitution ; and that it could not be ascribed to 

 any lower degree of oxidation of the metal being established. 

 One explanation remained that it might arise from the formation 

 of a s\iper-muriate, the quantity of water combined with the 

 quantity of acid which forms a neutral muriate being sufficient 

 for the oxidation of the metal, so that if an additional portion of 

 acid entered into the combination, the water of this might be 

 liberated. It was accordingly found that the products in all 

 these cases were sensibly acid ; and this even when any source 

 of fallacy from a subversion of the combination by the agency of 

 water was obviated. In the sequel, another explanation was 

 suggested on a different view of the subject, if this should not be 

 Considered as sufficient. 



Dr. Murray considered the result of these experiments as 

 establishing, in addition to what he had before brought forward, 

 the fallacy of the opinion in which chlorine is regarded as a 

 simple substance, which, with hydrogen, forms muriatic acid. 

 The opposite opinion, that it is a compound of muriatic acid 

 with oxygen, and that muriatic gas is a compound of muriatic 

 acid and water, might be held to be established, and it undoubt- 

 edly may be maintained. But he has presented a different view 

 of the subject, as being more conformable to the present state 

 of chemical theory. 



The progress of chemical discovery has shown that oxygen 

 cannot be regarded as exclusively the principle which commu- 

 nicates acidity. The same property is, in different cases, 

 communicated by hydrogen. And this fact he regards as afford- 

 ing the only argument of any weight in support of the new 

 theory of chlorine. , 



When water is obtained from muriatic acid gas, it does not 

 necessarily follow that it has pre-existed in the state of water. 

 It is equally possible, a priori, that the elements of water may 

 have existed in the gas. On this view oxymuriatic acid will be 

 a binary compound of a radical at present unknown with 

 oxygen, and muriatic acid a ternary compound of the same 

 radical with oxygen and hydrogen. And when muriatic acid 

 gas is formed from the mutual action of oxymuriatic gas and 

 hydrogen, it is simply from the hydrogen entering into the 

 combination. In the processes by which water is obtained from 

 it, the water is formed by its hydrogen and part of its oxygen 

 entering into union. The same view he extends to the other 

 acids which have been supposed to contain combined water. 

 Sulphurous acid is the proper binary compound of sulphur and 

 oxygen ; sulphuric acid is a ternary compound of sulphur, 

 oxygen, and hydrogen ; and nitric acid is a ternary compound 

 of nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. 



