A815.) On Iedine. 129 
te add sulphuric acid with caution, I succeeded in obtaining an 
acid liquid entirely free from sulphuric acid and barytes, and not 
precipitating nitrate of silver. It was chlorie acid dissolved in 
. Water. Its characters are the following, 
This acid has no sensible smell, Its solution in water is perfectly 
colourless. Its taste is very acid, and it reddens litmus without 
destroying the colour. It produces no alteration on solution of 
Andigo in sulphuric acid. Light does not decompose it. It may 
be concentrated by a gentle heat without undergoing decomposition, 
or without evaporating. I kept it a long time exposed to the air, 
without perceiving that its quantity diminished sensibly. When 
concentrated it has somewhat of an oily consistency. When ex- 
posed to heat it is partly decomposed into oxygen and chlorine, and 
partly volatilized without alteration. Hydrochloric acid decomposes 
it in the same way at the common temperature. Sulphurous and 
hydro-sulphuric acids have the same property; 'ut nitric acid pro- 
duces no change upon it. I combined it with ammonia, and ob- 
tained a very fulminating salt, announced for the first time by Mr. 
Chenevix. With potash I produced hyper-oxymuriate with all its 
characters. . It does not precipitate nitrate of silver nor any other 
metallic solution. It readily dissolves zinc, disengaging hydrogen ; 
but it appeared to me to act slowly on mercury.* This acid with- 
‘out doubt cannot be obtained in the gaseous state. As it contains 
five times as much oxygen as the oxide of chlorine, which is so 
easily decomposed, we cannot doubt that it is the water which 
keeps its elements united, as is the case with nitric and sulphuric 
acids. In this point of view the water acts the same part as the 
salifiable bases. But as it does not neutralize the bodies which it 
holds in solution, on account of the perfect equilibrium which 
exists between the acidifying properties of the oxygen and the alka- 
lifying properties of the hydrogen, and because its affinities are 
much weaker than those of the bases, it serves merely to unite the 
elements, and allows us to study the characters of the combinations 
which it forms, as if they were independent of its presence. 
The theory of the chlorates will not now present any difficulty. 
They are salts formed by the combination of chloric acid with 
bases, and are entirely analogous to the iodates, Some obscurity, 
however, may remain about the circumstances of their formation, 
when an alkaline solution is saturated with chlorine. J shall there- 
fore endeavour to throw some light on the subject. I shall com- 
_ menece by determining theoretically the ratio of the; quantities of 
chloruret of potassium and chlorate of potash which form at the 
same time, and.then I shall inquire if it agrees with that which 
experience gives, 
* It is composed of 1 volume of chlorine and 25 of oxygen, or by weight of 
100 chlorine and 118°95 oxygen, supposing the specific gravity of chlorine to be 
2421, 
Vou. VI. N° IL. I 
