1816.) respecting the Nature of Oxymuriatic Acid. 279 
tures of phosphates and muriates, formed according to circumstances, 
either with or without chemically combined water. . 
6. Chlorine does not combine with Charcoal,. but it unites with its 
own Bulk of Carbonic Oxide Gas. 
- From the phenomena peculiar to muriatic acid flows the old doc- 
trine that this acid cannot exist in a separate state, as is the case also 
with nitric acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, and several others. If’ 
we suppose that charcoal has a weaker affinity for oxygen than the 
basis of muriatic acid has, oxymuriatic acid gas may only be re- 
duced to muriatic acid when an oxide is present with which the acid 
may combine. If carbonic oxide were not unlike other oxides (as 
is in general the case with suboxides), it would combine with mu- 
riatic acid, and form a muriate of carbonic oxide quite similar in 
appearance to the combination of one volume of chlorine with one 
volume of charcoal. According to the old doctrine, we can in 
some measure see why charcoal does not act upon chlorine, while 
the new doctrine affords no explanation of the reason why charcoal 
js the only element incapable of uniting with chlorine without the 
intervention of oxygen. 
When chlorine combines with its own volume of carbonic oxide, 
it forms a strong gaseous acid, which has obtained the very im- 
proper and intolerable name of phosgene gas. This acid, according, 
to the new doctrine, is analogous to chloro-phosphoric acid, but 
distinguished from it by containing oxygen gas. It is the only 
example of an acid composed of one electro-positive body, char- 
coal, and two electro-negative bodies, chlorine and oxygen. ‘This 
acid is capable of uniting only with a single basis, ammoniacal gas, 
and forming withit a salt. By all other salifiable bases it is decom- 
posed, and there is formed a carbonate and achloride. Phosgene, 
then, is a pretty strong acid, composed of one basis and two oxygens 
(sit venia verbis), which is capable of forming a salt only with one 
base ; since with all other soluble bases it forms a very different 
compound of a carbonate and a chloride. 
According to the old doctrine, oxymuriatic acid gas contains half 
its bulk of oxygen in excess. Therefore carbonic oxide gas finds 
in its own bulk of oxymuriatic acid gas a sufficient quantity of 
oxygen to convert it into carbonic acid. By the mutual action of 
the two gases, carbonic acid and muriatic acid gases are formed, 
which unite with each other, and form a double acid, in which both 
acids contain an equal proportion of oxygen. This acid unites both | 
with bases tree from aud containing water. Some of these com- 
pounds are true triple salts, composed of one basis and two acids; 
others only a mixture. of a muriate and carbonate. ‘To the triple 
salts belong the aummmoniacal salt, the lead salt, and perhaps many 
others, which may also be formed by a mixture of muriates and 
carbonates. For example, if moist carbonate of lead be introduced 
into a boiling hot and saturated solution of muriate of lead, the 
