108 APPENDIX 



oxides mentioned above ; for anhydrous nitrous acid does 

 not act even on readily oxidizable bodies to any great 

 extent at ordinary temperatures, and can sustain a high 

 temperature without suffering decomposition. However, 

 these two oxygen atoms can without difficulty be con- 

 verted into the true oxylized state by mixing the nitrous 

 acid with HO. I have endeavoured to prove that the 

 hydrate of nitric acid is N0 4 + H0 2 , and that a compound 

 of the formula N0 2 + H0 2 also exists ; both are formed 

 on mixing N0 4 with HO ; the water, reducing a part of 

 the N0 4 to N0 2 , is itself converted into H0 2 , and this 

 peroxide combines partly with N0 4 and partly with X0 2 , 

 according to the following equation : 



4 + 2HO = (N0 4 + H0 2 ) + (N0 2 + H0 2 ). 



The oxidizing effects which these two bodies produce 

 at the ordinary temperature are, in my opinion, due to 

 the oxylized oxygen contained in their H0 2 ; since N0 4 

 binds H0 2 more closely than N0 2 does, K0 2 + H0 2 is a 

 more effective oxidizing agent than N0 4 + H0 2 ; hence 

 the former even when diluted with ever so much water 

 decomposes potassium iodide, potassium ferrocyanide, and 

 hydrogen sulphide with the liberation of N0 2 , whereas 

 very dilute nitric acid is unable to produce this effect. 



As to chlorine, bromine and iodine, I regard them, in 

 accordance with the older theories, as peroxides of murium, 

 bromium and iodium, my opinion being that they contain 

 one atom of oxygen in the oxylized condition, to which 

 the remarkable oxidizing actions, which these bodies are 

 capable of producing at the ordinary temperature, must 

 be ascribed. Therefore I regard the oxides of murium, 

 bromium and iodium as analogous to those of water, 



