248 Reaction of Sulphuric Acid. 



I 



the base present. This must be attributed either to some inaccu- 

 racy in performing the analysis^ or to the presence of a small quan- 

 tity of some snlpho-organic acid, containing in its neutral salts, 

 two atoms of sulphuric ocid for each atom of base. The former 

 explanation is by far the most likely to be true, and it seems pro- 

 bable that the composition of a neutral salt of this acid may be 

 represented by one atom of sulphuric acid, one atom of organic 



matter, and one atom of base. 



A number of compounds possessing the properties of acids have 

 been discovered, consisting of an acid of sulphur modified by 

 some organic substance. These compounds may be divided into 

 two classes. In one are comprised those acids which are com- 

 posed of two atoms of sulphuric acid, united to one of organic 

 matter acting as a base, and which consequently, in forming neu- 

 tral salts, unite with but one additional atom of base. In the neu- 

 tral salts formed by the other class, two atoms of sulphur are also 

 present for each atom of organic matter and each atom of base, 

 but are combined with oxygen in such proportion as to form 

 hyposulphuric acid, so that the organic matter present cannot be 

 considered as acting the part of a base. Under the first of these 

 heads may be enumerated the sulphovinic, sulphetheric, sulpho- 

 methylic, and sulphocetic acids; under the second the benzosul- 

 phuric, sulphonapthalic and probably the sulphovegetic and several 

 others. For the acids contained in the first class, custom seems 

 to have assigned as a nomenclature, a name derived from the 

 organic matter entering into their composition, modified so as to 

 terminate in ic and having the term sulpho prefixed. For the 

 second, no fixed rule seems to have been laid down. The Ger- 

 man chemist who discovered one of the two acids whose com- 

 position has been ascertained with sufficient accuracy to enable 

 us with certainty to place them under this head, gave to it the 

 name of benzosulphuric, while the other acid still retains the ap- 

 pellation of sulphonapthalic which it received when its composi- 

 tion and properties were still supposed to be analagous to those 

 of the sulphovinic and other acids which belong to the first class. 

 The acids described in this article, if the view given of its com- 

 position be correct, must be considered as belonging to a division 

 of the second class hitherto unoccupied unless by the sulphindi- 

 gotic acid of Berzelius. In the hemlosulphuric, as in the other 

 acids of this class, there is present one atom of an oxacid of sul- 



