146 On the Atomic Weight of various Metals and Acids. [Aug. 



certain bases as their atomic weight. If we adopt the second 

 plan, we fall into the very extraordinary anomaly, that succinic 

 acid and acetic acid, two acids exceedingly different in their 

 properties, are notwithstanding composed each of the very same 

 constituents. The subject will still require a good deal of 

 research before it can be considered as sufficiently elucidated. 

 Meanwhile it is of importance to draw the attention of chemists 

 to the subject. I shall, therefore, give two tables of the compo- 

 sition of these acids. In the first table, they are supposed to 

 be in the state of crystals ; in the second table, they are sup- 

 posed united to a base, and exposed to a temperature sufficiently 

 high to drive off the whole water which they contain. The 

 second table exhibits these acids as they have been estimated 

 by Berzelius ; but 1 have in some places altered his results some- 

 what, partly in consequence of the experiments detailed in the 

 present paper, and partly from experiments on their direct 

 decomposition, by heating them along with peroxide of copper ; 

 experiments which I have thought it needless to detail, as the 

 results only can be entitled to any attention ; and the mode 

 which I followed is now sufficiently understood. 



Table I. — Constituents of Six Vegetable Acids supposed in the 



State of Crystals. 



If we adopt the numbers contained in the first table, we make 

 the composition of tartaric and citric acids the same ; while the 

 second table renders the composition of acetic and succinic 

 acids identical. Each of these conclusions leads to difficulties 

 which, in the present state of our knowledge, we are unable to 

 explain. 



