1819.] Muriatic Acid Gas. 39 
weight ; and it is conceivable that by some exertion of affinities, 
a portion of it may be liberated. If we were unable to explain 
the modus operandi, this would remain a difficulty no doubt, but 
not, as in the opposite system, an impossible result. 
It is to be admitted, indeed, that in none of these cases is the 
entire quantity of water which must be supposed to exist in 
muriatic acid gas obtained; and so far the proof is deficient. 
But neither from the nature of the experiments is this to be 
looked for ; and I give more weight to the argument from having 
always found certain portions of water to be procured; while 
on the opposite doctrine there should be none. In those cases 
where, supposing water to be present in muriatic acid gas, it 
ought to be obtained in the full quantity, it uniformly is so, 
though the proof from these is rendered ambiguous by the result 
being capable of being explained on a different tan Uy 
{To be continued.) 
ArTicLe VI. 
Contributions towards the Ener of Anthrazothionic Acid, disco- 
vered by Porrett, and called by him Sulphuretted Chyazxic 
Acid. By Theodor von Grotthuss.* 
Sect. 1. Choice of the Name.—The name which Porrett has 
given to this acid is formed from the first letters of the names of 
the elements of which it is composed, namely, carbon, hydrogen, 
and azote. As the object undoubtedly must have been to bring 
to the recollection those constituents of the acid about which no 
doubt exists ; and as the name given by Porrett was unsuitable 
to the idiom of all other languages except the English, it was 
natural to endeavour to correct the want of euphony of the term 
by alterations which should still recall the elements of which the 
acid iscomposed. In Germany accordingly the term sulphuret- 
ted prussic acid (schwefel-blausaure) was pitched upon ; but this 
name is admissible only on the supposition that Porrett’s asser- 
tion that this acid is a compound of prussic acid and sulphur be 
true. But from the experiments which I am going to relate, it 
will be seen that it contains indeed the elements of prussic acid, 
but in different proportions ; and that neither prussic acid nor 
cyanogen as such exist in it. Hence the last term cannot be 
applied to it with more propriety than the first term. 
[ resolved, therefore, instead of Porrett’s name, to compose 
the term anthraxothionic acid (anthrazothionsaure) from the 
Greek, indicating accurately the constituents of which this acid 
* Translated from Schweigger’s Journal, xx, 225, (Publisbed in Dec. 1817.) 
