1816.) — respecting the Nature of Oxymuriatic Acid. 433 
of simplicity. The phenomenon shows clearly that either all, or 
at least one, of the separating bodies, is compound ; and that during 
the explosion the constituents are differently arranged. 
* # # * # 
I now return to the chloride of axote, The new doctrine cons 
siders this body as a compound of chlorine and azote. When the 
temperature is slightly elevated, both the elements separate with an 
explosion, and the production of fire. ‘The new doctrine acknow- 
ledges the difficulty of explaining the explosion, but denies that on 
this account any consequence can be drawn against its accuracy. 
The old doctrine considers this peculiar substance as a campound 
of muriatic acid and nitrous acid (or nitric acid) both free from 
water, because these acids are obtained when the exploding com- 
pound is exposed to the action of water.in a close vessel, As oxy- 
muriatic acid at a high temperature retains oxygen much more 
powerfully than charcoal does, it is obvious that in a high tempera- 
ture muriatic acid must decompose nitrous acid, and this new com= 
bination must be accompanied by fire. The red-hot oxymuriatie 
acid gas and azotic gas occasion the explosion. 
When this compound is touched by a combustible body containing 
hydrogen, the hydrogen unites with the oxygen of the nitrous acid, 
and forms water, which unites with the muriatic acid. But as this 
process occasions an increase of temperature beyond what the com- 
pound can bear, the whole explodes at the instant of contact. E 
To put it in the reader’s power to judge more accurately of this 
view, I will endeavour to give an answer to the following questions: 
How cap we conceive this body to exist in water, if it be composed 
of anhydrous muriatic acid and nitrous acid, while yet muriatic acid 
in a high temperature has an infinitely greater affinity for oxygen 
than azote has? How isan anhydrous acid different from an hydrous 
acid? What is a double acid? And do we know any such, besides 
those produced by chlorine, fluorine, and iodine. 
When oxymuriatic acid gas acts at a low temperature on an 
ammoniacal salt dissolved in water, the oxymuriatic acid by the 
hydrogen of the ammonia is reduced to the state of hydrous 
muriatic acid; and as the azote, at the instant of its disengage- 
ment, is in contact with oxymuriatic acid still undecomposed, it is 
enabled, in consequence of the affinity of azote for oxygen, together 
with that of nitrous acid for muriatic acid, to overcome the simple 
aflinity of muriatic acid for oxygen, it decomposes the oxymuriatic 
acid, and, both acids uniting together, form an insoluble compound, 
which falls to the bottom. But how it comes to pass that in this 
new arrangement of the constituents which takes place in a low 
temperature, the oxygen still retains the greatest part of its original 
electro-chemical polarization towards the muriatic acid, though it 
remains in combination with the azote, and exists in the compound 
as a constituent of the nitrous acid (without which the explosion 
could not take place) cannot in the present state of our electro- 
chemical knowledge be fully explained. But this is no objection to 
