1819.) and on some other Subjects of Chemical Theory. 287 
which the old doctrine with regard to the nature of mumatic and 
oxymuriatic acid rests. It may be well, therefore, to inquire, 
how far they may modify the conclusions to be drawn, admitting 
even that oxymuriatic acid contains oxygen, and that muniatic 
acid gas affords water. 
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, @ priori, that its elements may be present 
in simultaneous combination with the acid, or its radical; that 
the acid is a ternary compound of a radical with oxygen and 
hydrogen ; and that it is decomposed in those processes by 
which water is procured, the hydrogen, with the requisite pro- 
portion of oxygen, combining to form water; and its radical, 
with any excess of oxygen, remaining in union with the sub- 
stance by which the change has been etlected. 
If this view were adopted with regard to muriatic acid, the 
same view might, on the same grounds, be applied to the 
other acids, which appear to contain water in intimate combina- 
tion, and in a definite proportion. And such an acid, the radical 
and precise constitution of which are known, may be best 
adapted to illustrate the hypothesis. 
Sulphuric acid affords water when it is submitted to the action 
of an alkaline base; and the quantity of this water appears to 
be definite, amounting to 18°5 in 100 of the strongest acid 
which can be procured in an insulated state ; 100 parts of this 
acid, therefore, are considered as composed of 81-5 of real acid 
(consisting of 32:6 of sulphur and 48-9 of oxygen) with 18°5 of 
water. But if, instead of this view of its constitution, it be 
considered as a ternary compound of sulphur, oxygen, and 
hydrogen, its composition will be 32-6 of sulphur, 65:2 of 
oxygen, and 2:2 of hydrogen.. In those processes by which 
water is obtained from it; in the action, for example, of an 
alkaline base, and subsequent exposure to heat, the composition 
is subverted by the affinities exerted ; the hydrogen unites with 
the requisite proportion of oxygen, formimg water, and the 
remaining oxygen with the sulphur unite with the base. In the 
action of a metal on the acid, there is the same result; only by 
the attraction of the metal to oxygen, the whole of that element 
is retained, and the hydrogen is disengaged. 
Muriatic acid gas then, according to this doctrine, is the real 
acid, a ternary compound of aradical (at present unknown) with, 
oxygen and hydrogen, exactly as sulphuric acid in its highest 
state of concentration is the real acid, a ternary compound of} 
sulphur, oxygen, and hydrogen. When it is submitted to an 
alkaline .base, the action exerted causes its decomposition; its 
hydrogen, and part of its oxygen, combine to form water; and 
its radical, with its remaining oxygen, unite with the base, form-) 
ing a neutral compound, analogous to what other acids of similar 
constitution form, When a similar result is obtained from the 
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