294 Dr. Murray on Muriatic Acid, [APRIL, 
proportions strictly definite; is retained by the most powerfu! 
affinities ; communicates new and characteristic properties ; and 
is essential even to the existence of these compounds in an 
insulated form. Berzelius and Gay-Lussac have stated, that it 
is to be considered as a base necessary to retain the elements 
of the acid combined, though without neutralizing the acid 
properties—an opinion which in itself, and still more with this 
condition, is certainly sufficiently imcongruous. And _ both 
theories admit equally of incongruity in the supposed presence 
and energetic action of water in acids. The old doctrine admits 
its influence in sulphuric, nitric, phosphoric, and muriatic acids, 
though at variance with its principle, that oxygen jis the 
element which confers acidity, or at least having no conformity 
‘to that principle, nor receiving explanation fromit, The new 
doctrine refuses to admit it with regard to muriatic acid, but 
admits it in all the others—an exception which serves only to 
render the system more objectionable by the violation of analogy ; 
while the admission with regard to the others is equally inca- 
pable of being accounted for on any principle it affords. By 
considering oxygen and hydrogen as elements conferring acidity, 
a satisfactory solution is afforded of the effects produced in these 
cases by their joint operation; and independent of this, it is 
much more probable, @ priori, that such effects should arise 
from the action of elements so powerful, than from the agency 
of water, which, in its general relations, exerts such feeble 
POETS. Lastly, the principle on which the presence of com- 
ined water in these acids has been supposed to depend, that of 
the strong attraction of the acid to water, seems altogether 
fallacious; for on this principle sulphurous acid should also 
contain combined water and sulphuretted hydrogen, and even 
carbonic acid might be expected to retain a small portion, The 
whole evidently depends on difference of constitution. Sulphur- 
ous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and carbonic acid, are binary 
compounds, and therefore yield no water, nor retain any in 
intimate combination; and‘in the others, the proportion of 
water supposed to exist will be found to have no relation to the 
attraction of the acid to water, so far as this can be inferred, as 
is evident from the example of phosphoric acid affording as much 
as sulphuric or nitric ; but to the relations of its elements, and 
more particularly of its oxygen, to the radical. This last fact 
affords nearly a demonstration that the constitution is that of 
simultaneous combination of the elements, and not that of water 
and acid. . 
That water may also exist in immediate combination with 
acids, without being resolved into its elements, is sufficiently 
possible ; and it probably is in this state in those cases in which 
there are no indications of an intimate combination, or definite _ 
proportion. It may then be considered as in solution similar to 
that in which it holds salts dissolved, or, what.is a closer 
