15 



madfe in straight glass tubes of various diameters, armed at the sealed 

 end with a metallic conductor, through which the shocks were intro- 

 duced, the gas being at the other end confined by quicksilver. 



The experiments, eighteen in number, are arranged under two 

 heads, the first of which relates to the effects of electricity on mu- 

 riatic gas, either pure or with the admixture of common air and 

 oxygenous gas ; and in the second are recorded the effects of elec- 

 trifying the muriatic acid gas with inflammable substances. 



The results of these experiments, which in the first set were ge- 

 nerally a diminution, and in the second an expansion of the aerial 

 fluid within certain limits, plainly evinced that no decomposition 

 whatever of the muriatic acid had ever been eflfected, the residue al- 

 ways exhibiting the characters of hydrogenous or carbonic gases, 

 whence it was reasonable to infer that with all the precautions that 

 were used, the muriatic gas had never been perfectly freed from some 

 admixture of water or other ingredient. 



The following general conclusions are deduced from these results. 



1) The muriatic acid gas, in the driest state in which it can be 

 produced, still contains a portion of water. The most decisive of 

 the experiments indicating a proportion of 1-4 grain of water to 100 

 cubical inches of muriatic gas, long exposed to a sufficient quantity 

 of muriatic lime. 



2) When electrical shocks are passed through this gas, the watery 

 portion is decomposed ; the hydrogen of the water which unites with 

 the electric matter, constituting hydrogenous gas ; and the oxygen 

 which combines with the muriatic acid which at the same time acts 

 on the quicksilver, composing muriate of mercury. 



3) The electric fluid serves as an intermediate agent in combining 

 oxygen with muriatic acid ; while the really acid portion of the mu- 

 riatic gas does not sustain any decomposition by the action of elec- 

 tricity. 



4) When electric shocks are passed through a mixture of carbo- 

 nated hydrogen and muriatic acid gases, the water held in solution 

 by these gases is decomposed by the carbon of the compound inflam- 

 mable gas, and carbonic acid and hydrogenous gases are the result. 



5) When all the water of the two gases has been decomposed, no 

 effect ensues from continuing the electrization. 



6) And lastly, since carbon, though placed under the most fa- 

 vourable circumstances for being separated from the muriatic acid, 

 and combining with its oxygen, evinces no such tendency, it may be 

 inferred, that if the muriatic acid be an oxygenated substance, its 

 radical has a stronger affinity to oxygen than is possessed by char- 

 coal. 



Although this investigation have proved unsuccessful as to the par- 

 ticular object for which it was instituted, the author however thinks 

 the communication of it cannot but be productive of some utility ; 

 since, besides some material facts it has brought to light, it may pre- 

 vent others from engaging in most laborious processes of a similar 

 nature, being thus cautioned against the fallacy of their results. All 



