EQUITY OF REDEMPTION EQUIVALENTS. 



81 



debt given up, equity could not decree it unless he 

 could bring into court the money honestly due with- 

 out usury. This is a very general and Imperfect out- 

 line of the jurisdiction of a court of equity ; in respect 

 to which it has been justly remarked, that, in matters 

 within its exclusive jurisdiction, where substantial 

 justice entitles the party to relief, but the positive 

 law is silent, it is impossible to define the boundaries 

 of that jurisdiction, or to enumerate, with precision, 

 its various principles. Those who wish for more in- 

 formation on the subject may consult the elementary 

 treatises of Fonblanque on Equity, lord Redesdale's 

 Treatise on Equity Pleadings, and Cooper's Equity 

 Pleadings ; and the Practical Treatises of Equity by 

 Maddock and Jeremy. 



Equity, Courts of. The equity jurisdiction, in Eng- 

 land, is vested, principally, in the high court of chan- 

 cery. See Chancellor, Common Law, and Courts. 



EQUITY OF REDEMPTION. Upon a mortage, 

 although the estate, upon nonpayment of the money, 

 becomes vested in the mortgagee, yet equity con- 

 siders it only a pledge for the money, and gives the 

 party a right to redeem, which is called his equity of 

 redemption. If the mortgagee is desirous to bar the 

 equity of redemption, he may oblige the mortgager 

 either to pay the money or be foreclosed of his equity, 

 which is done by proceedings in chancery by bill of' 

 foreclosure. See Mortgage. 



EQUIVALENTS, CHEMICAL ; a term employed 

 in chemical philosophy, to express the system of de- 

 finite ratios, in which the corpuscular subjects of this 

 science reciprocally combine, referred to a common 

 standard, reckoned unity. The principal facts relat- 

 ing to chemical combinations require to be stated, in 

 order to render the present subject intelligible. 



In the first place, leaving out of view the combi- 

 nations of liquids with each other, and the common 

 cases of solution in water and alcohol, the first law 

 relating to the combination of substances is, that the 

 composition of bodies is fixed and invariable ; or, in 

 other words, a compound substance, so long as it re- 

 tains its characteristic properties, always consists of 

 the same elements, united together in the same pro- 

 portion. Sulphuric acid, for example, is always com- 

 posed of sulphur and oxygen, in the ratio of sixteen 

 parts, by weight, of the former, to twenty-four of the 

 latter ; no other elements can form it, nor can its own 

 elements form it in any other proportion. Sulphate of 

 barytes, in like manner, is always composed of forty 

 parts of sulphuric acid and seventy-eight of barytes. 

 If sulphuric acid and barytes should enter into com- 

 bination in any other proportion, some new com- 

 pound, different from sulphate of barytes, would be 

 formed. 



The second law relating to this subject is, that, 

 when one body combines with another in different pro- 

 portions, the larger proportion of one of the ingredients 

 has a simple arithmetical ratio to the smaller propor- 

 tion; the second quantity being a simple multiple of 

 the first ; and if there is a third or fourth proportion, 

 the same ratio continues between them. The com- 

 binations of the two substances, which in their gaseous 

 state, form, by their mixture, the atmosphere, oxy- 

 gen and nitrogen, unite in five different propor- 

 tions, and form a good illustration of this law, these 

 proportions having to each other the simple ratio of 

 1,2,3,4,5. 



\itrogcn. Oxygen. 

 Nitrous oxide consists of ... 14 8 



Nitric oxide, 14 16 



Hypo-nitrous acid, 14 24 



Nitrous acid, 14 31 



Nitric acid 14 40 



To give an example from the salts, the bicarbonate 



of potash, contains twice as much carbonic acid as 



iij 



the carbonate ; and the oxalic acid of the three oxal- 

 ates of potash is in the ratio of 1, 2, and 4. This 

 law is often called the law of multiples or of cotubina- 

 tion in multiple proportion. It has been established 

 only by comparatively recent investigations, but the 

 most rigid researches have abundantly evinced that 

 it is a well-founded law. 



The third law of combination is no less remarkable 

 than the preceding, and is intimately connected 

 with it. Water and hypo-sulphurous acid may be 

 adduced for its illustration. The former is composed 

 of eight oxygen to one hydrogen ; the latter of eight 

 oxygen to sixteen sulphur. Now, the well-known 

 substance sulphurated hydrogen, is constituted of one 

 hydrogen to sixteen sulphur ; that is, the quantities 

 of hydrogen and of sulphur, which combine with the 

 same quantity of oxygen, combine with one another. 

 Again, forty parts of selenium, with eight of oxygen 

 form the oxide of selenium, and with one of hydro- 

 gen, seleniureted hydrogen ; thirty-six parts ot 

 chlorine, with eight of oxygen, constitute the oxide 

 of chlorine, and with one ot hydrogen, form muriatic 

 acid gas ; sixteen parts of sulphur combine with 

 thirty-six of chlorine to form the chloride of sul- 

 phur. 



It is manifest, from these examples, that bodies 

 unite according to proportional numbers j and hence 

 has arisen the use of certain terms, as, proportion, 

 combining proportion, or equivalent, to express them. 

 Thus the combining proportions of the substances 

 just alluded to are, . 



Hydrogen, .... 1 



Oxygen, 8 



Sulphur, 16 



Chlorine, . . 36 



Selenium, .... .40 



When one body combines with another in more than 

 one proportion, then the law of multiples, already 

 explained, comes into action. Thus, 



Hypo sulphurous I 

 acid is compos- 

 ed of J 

 Sulphurous acid, 

 Sulphuric acid, 



Sulphur. Oxygen. 



1C or 1 pr. + 8 or 1 pr 



16 or 1 pr. + 16 or 2 pr. 



16 or 1 pr. + 24 or 3 pr. 



The most usual combination is 1 proportion of one 

 body either with I or with 2 proportions of an- 

 other. Combinations of 1 to 3, or 1 to 4, are very 

 uncommon, unless the more simple compounds like- 

 wise exist. 



But this law does not apply to elementary substan- 

 ces only, since compound bodies have their combin- 

 ing proportions, which may likewise be expressed in 

 numbers. Thus, since water is composed of one pro- 

 portion, or 8, of oxygen, and one proportion, or 1, of 

 hydrogen, its combining proportion is 9. The pro- 

 portion of sulphuric acid, is 40, because it is a com- 

 pound of one proportion, or 16 of sulphur, and three 

 proportions, or 24, of oxygen ; and, in like manner 

 the combining proportion of muriatic acid is 37, be- 

 cause it is a compound of one proportion, or 36 of 

 chlorine, and one proportion, or 1, of hydrogen. 

 The proportional number of potassium is 40, and, as 

 that quantity combines with 8 of oxygen to form pot- 

 ash, the combining proportion of potash is 48. 

 Now, when these compounds unite, one proportion 

 of the one combines with one, two, three, or more 

 proportions of the other, precisely as the simple sub- 

 stances do. The hydrate of potash, for example, is 

 constituted of 48 potash and 9 of water, and its com- 

 bining proportion is, consequently, 48-|-9, or 57. 

 The sulphate of potash is composed of 40 sulphuric 

 acid + 48 potash. The combining proportion of this 

 salt is, therefore, 88. The muriate of the same 

 alkali is composed of 37 muriatic acid + 48 potash ; 

 its combining proportion is, therefore, 85. The 



