98 M. Grotthuss on the [FrEx. 
It is much to be wished that those chemists who are so fortu- 
nate as to have good apparatus at their disposal would ascertain 
accurately the specific gravity of gaseous anthrazothionic acid 
freed from water. This would enable us to determine the con- 
densation which the proximate constituents of this acid (sulphuret 
of carbon and ammonia) undergo when they unite. If one volume 
of sulphuret of carbon and two volumes of ammonia were to con- 
stitute three volumes of anthrazothionic acid ; that is to say, if 
the proximate constituents of the acid were to undergo no con- 
densation when they unite, three volumes of the acid would weigh 
4-904 ; and, of course, the weight of one volume would be 1- 634, 
If we reckon the constituents of 100 parts of the acid from the 
weight of the volumes thus found to constitute anthrazothionic 
acid, we shall obtain the very same results (a trifling variation in 
the decimals excepted) as those already obtained in sect. 24. 
But these last estimates I consider as most correct. We 
may, therefore, reckon 100 parts of anthrazothionic acid to be 
composed of 
Sulphur. ...............- 67°29 in weight 
Carbon 5s fees PE FOU Caen Oke 
AZO Ty OSG. ee LTE 
Hydrogen 3)08 iy. yea) Ad 
100-00 
Sect. 31.—This, as far as is known, is the only example of an 
acid containing an alkali, or, at least, its elements in the requi- 
site proportions, as a proximate constituent. 
Future experiments are requisite to inform us whether some 
other acids, as uric acid, sebacic acid, amniotic acid, &c. when 
stochiometrically analyzed, will not oblige i inquiring chemists to 
draw the same conclusion with respect to them. Uric acid, at 
least, when treated with chlorine, always forms muriate of 
ammonia. Hence it is not improbable that in this acid ammonia 
exists converted into an acid in the same way by means of 
carbon, as it is in anthrazothionic acid by means of sulphur. 
Berzelius has called those bodies acids which are attracted to 
the positive pole, and those alkalies which are attracted to the 
negative pole of the galvanic circle. But it is easy to see that no 
acid can be given which will not be electroposttive with regard to 
number. We must dividethe 11 not by 5, but by 5:14, which would give us 2°136 
volumes ; for it is obvious that if one volume weigh 1°500, 2°136 volumes would 
weigh 3:205. But the assumption of a condensation amounting to 5°14 does not 
agree with the observations hitherto made, that the condensation is always by 
whole numbers of volumes. Hence it follows that Gay-Lus:ac’s estimates of the 
sp. gr. of alcohol vapour, sulphuret of carbon vapour, &c. cannot be taken as the 
sp. gr. of the imaginary vapours at the freezing point, Perhaps thesp. gr. of these 
last might be obtained, by saturatinga gas of known sp. gr. with the vapours at the 
freezing point, and then from the weight of the mixture subtracting the known 
Weizht of the zas,—(See Haiiy’s Traité de Physique, i. 181. Second edition.) 
