430 Scientific Labors and Character of 
« it, he had the satisfaction of seeing nearly all of them on his 
side. 
To enable such of our readers as may not have had opportunity 
to understand the nature of this controversy, it may be mentioned, 
that the great Swedish Chemist, Scheele, who discovered chlorine; 
supposed it to be muriatic acid deprived of its inflammable principle; 
and hence denominated it dephlogisticated marine acid. This was 
in the year 1774. In 1785, Berthollet, one of the most distinguished 
of the French chemists, afterwards subjected this substance to nu- 
merous experiments, and concluded it to be a compound of muriatic 
acid and oxygen, and hence named it oxy-muriatic acid. In 1809, 
Gay-Lussac and.Thenard published a number of experiments on it, 
in which they intimated he possibility that: it was a simple body, al- 
though they adhered to the opinion of Berthollet.. Such was the 
state of opinion respecting oxy-muriatic acid, when, Davy began his 
experiments upon it in 1810. These led him to adopt and pub- 
licly to assert the opinion, that oxy-muriatic acid, (or chlorine* as 
he proposed to callit,) isa simple body, analogous in many of its prop- 
erties and relations to oxygen; and that muriatic acid itself is a com- 
pound of chlorine and hydrogen, as sulphuric acid is a compound: of 
oxygen and sulphur. 
The simple enunciation of this doctrine, does not indicate to these 
who are but little acquainted with chemical science, the reason why 
chemists have attached so much importance to it; nor would they 
perhaps consider it as.a point worth disputing about, whether chlorine 
as a simple or a compound body. But two consequences resulted 
from the doctrine asserted by Davy, which went to subvert the very 
pillars. of chemical science, although they were supposed to be im- 
movably fixed by Lavoisier. For if chlorine contained no oxygets 
but.is, like that, an independent supporter of combustion, and like that 
also is capable of forming acids with combustible bases, then the doé- 
trmes of combustion and acidification established by Lavoisier, must 
be given up, since here is a case in which combustion and acidifica- 
tion both take place without the presence of oxygen. A single ex- 
periment which is found to be incompatible with a received doctrines 
is ly sufficient entirely to subvert that doctrine ; and such 
were t He © experiments in question. They required a great part of 
a eee es 
ew name obviously became necessary, because the name oxy-muriatic acid 
that it was an acid, and that it was com 
| t posed of oxygen and muriatic. acl 
tothe which | Positions were now in controversy. 7 
