75 



He then states two extraordinary and unforeseen productions of 

 this acid: one was during an analysis of manachanite from Botany 

 Bay, in which oxygen had passed from oxide of titanium into a com- 

 bination of potash with muriatic acid, and formed hyperoxygenized 

 muriate of potash; and the other was in distilling nitro -muriatic acid 

 upon platina. He tried the action of manganese in the same manner 

 as the titanium, but could not succeed ; nor did nitric acid convert 

 oxygenized into hyperoxygenized muriatic acid. 



Mr. Chenevix states that Mr. Berthollet had proposed to consider 

 muriatic acid as the radical of the other two, and says that oxygenized 

 muriatic acid corresponds with nitrous and sulphureous acids, and 

 hyperoxygenized muriatic acid with nitric and sulphuric. 



Our author states the arguments in favour of the old and the new 

 mode of denomination; and upon the consideration that many bodies 

 called acids have not been proved to contain oxygen, and that of some 

 the contrary has been demonstrated, he seems inclined to think that 

 an impartial hearing of both sides of the question must, in the present 

 state of chemical knowledge, decide in favour of 



Muriatic radical, or somel {"**,. ~ * 



word of the same import, I 



^instead of< Oxygenized muriatic acid ; 



Muriatic acid, I Hyperoxygenized muriatic 



J L acid. 



Experiments and Observations on certain Stony and Metalline Substances, 

 which at different Times are said to have fallen on the Earth; also 

 on various Kinds of native Iron. By Edward Howard, Esq. F.R.S. 

 Read February 25, 1802. {Phil. Trans. 1802,^. 168.] 



In considering the copious contents of this paper, we shall find it 

 convenient to distribute them under the four following heads : 1 . The 

 historical part; 2. The descriptive part; 3. The analytical part; and 

 4. General observations on the subject, and a comparison of these 

 stones w r ith other substances which seem to bear some affinity to them. 



And, First, as to the historical part. Waving all former accounts, 

 both of the ancients and moderns, of stones which, under the names 

 of Ceraunia, Boetilia, Ombria, Brontia, Belemnitee, &c. were supposed 

 to have fallen from heaven, of which accounts most are disproved, 

 and others are involved in inexplicable obscurity, we may lay some 

 stress on the instances adduced by Mr. King, in his late tract "con- 

 cerning stones which are said to have fallen from the clouds;" and 

 also on the evidence of the Abb< Bachelay, who laid before the French 

 Royal Academy a stone, which he asserted had been found on the 

 13th of September, 1768, still hot, by persons who saw it fall; and 

 that of Professor Barthold, who analysed and described a stone found 

 near Ensisheim in Upper Alsace, under the unqualified name of Pierre 

 de Tonnere. These observations and experiments of the Abbe" and 



