182 On Iodine. (Ave. 
difference between the quantity of oxygen which I ought to have 
obtained, and what I actually obtained by experiment. , 
The action of chlorine on the oxides is entirely analogous to that 
of iodine ; and chloric acid is produced nearly in the same circum- 
stances as iodic acid. ‘Thus we obtain with peroxide of mercury 
and chlorine, chloruret and chlorate, in the same manner as with 
iodine and this peroxide we form ioduret and iodate of mer- 
cury. These different objects require new researches, and it is to 
be desired that they may fix the attention of chemists. 
The chloruret of azote, from its analogy with the ioduret, ought 
to be composed of three parts of chlorine and one part of azote; 
but Davy instead of this found four to one. When we see azote 
forming with chlorine and iodine very fulminating compounds, we 
may ask whether fulminating gold and silver, and even mercury, 
are not binary combinations of azote and the metal. This is the 
‘more probable, as gold, silver, and mercury, having very little 
affinity for oxygen, seem by this property to approach chlorine and 
iodine. 
From the analogies which I have established in this memoir, the 
reader must be convinced that oxygen, chlorine, and iodine do not 
form an insulated group to which belong exclusively the property 
of acidifying. We have seen that this property belongs likewise to 
sulphur and azote, and to u great number of other bodies. How- 
ever, oxygen may be always considered as the principal acidifying 
substance, both from the energy with which it possesses it, and 
from the numerous acids which it forms ; and because we are only 
able to employ as solvents liquids containing oxygen or hydrogen, 
capable of changing the nature of the compounds which they dis- 
solve. ‘Though chlorine does not disengage oxygen from all its 
combinations, I think it should be placed before it, on account of 
the energy of its properties. But fluorine, which has not hitherto 
been obtained in a separate state, will, without doubt, stand before 
chlorine, because it disengages oxygen from all its combinations. 
It is to M. Ampere that we owe the first idea that fluorie acid is 
analogous to hydrochloric acid; that is to say, that it is composed 
of hydrogen and a body analogous to chlorine, which he proposed 
to call fluorine. Davy, to whom he communicated that theory did 
not adopt it nor endeavour to verify it till long after, when M. 
Ampere had answered his objections. 
(Te be continued.) 
a s 
— 
