CARBONIC AC1U 365 



deutoxide of nitrogen, it renders it explosive. Soluble in volatile 

 oils, in ether and in alcohol, and precipitable by water. 



(f.) Evaporation from water causes it to congeal. 



3 t COMPOSITION. 85 sulphur to 15 carbon, and it is supposed to 

 contain 2 proportions of sulphur 1 6 X 2 = 32 and 1 carbon 6 = 38 for its 

 chemical equivalent. This compound was called alcohol of sulphur 

 by Lampadius, its discoverer.* 



HYDRO-XANTHIC ACID. (favdo?, yellow.) 



The sulphuret of carbon is generally unaffected by acids, but the 

 nitro-muriatic acid produces from it a yellow acid, whose nature is 

 not yet exactly ascertained. f Its discoverer, M. Zeise, (Copenha- 

 gen,) regards it as a compound of sulphur and carbon for a base, 

 with hydrogen for an acidifier. It combines with alkalies, neutral- 

 izing them, and forming peculiar crystallizable salts. The subject 

 seems to need farther examination. J 



Remark. It was announced last year, in Paris, that phosphorus, 

 remaining six or eight months in bi-sulphuret of carbon, attracted 

 away the sulphur, and left the carbon to crystallize into true dia- 

 mond ; it was sajd that the Parisian jewellers pronounced it to be 

 genuine, but the latest accounts state that the small crystals obtained 

 appear to be siliceous. 



CARBONIC ACID. 



1. COMBUSTION OF CARBON IN VARIOUS FORMS. 



(a.) It has been already mentioned, that Sir Isaac Newton sup- 

 posed the diamond to be a coagulated combustible, because it re- 

 fracted light so powerfully. This sagacious conjecture has been con- 

 firmed by the actual combustion of the diamond, and the products 

 having been collected are found to be carbonic acid. 



* Crell's Annals, 179G, II. Cited by Turner. 



t Berzelius supposes it to be a compound of muriatic, carbonic and sulphurous 

 acid gases. 



t Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. Vol. XXI, and Ann. Phil. N. S. Vol. IV. The- 

 nard, 5th ed. Vol. I, p. 440. 



The Emperor Francis I, exposed a quantity of diamonds and rubies to an intense 

 heat, the rubies remained unaltered, but the diamonds disappeared. The Florentine 

 academicians, by means of the large burning glass of Tschirhaucen, in the pres- 

 ence of Cosmo III, Duke of Tuscany, dissipated several diamonds in the year 1694. 

 These experiments were repeated with equal success by Darcet, Rouelle, Macquer, 

 and other French chemists, who ascertained that the diamond was not merely dis- 

 sipated, but that it actually burnt with a visible flame. Count de Sternberg, a 

 Bohemian gentleman, fastened a diamond to red hot iron, and plunged it into oxygen 

 gas, when the combustion of the iron set fire to the diamond, which burnt with a 

 very brilliant flame. Lavoisier and Cadet proved that the diamond does not burn 

 after the oxygen gas is exhausted. But these experiments went only to prove that 

 the diamond is combustible. No attention had been paid to the products of the 

 combustion, until Lavoisier, in 1777, undertook a series of experiments on a large 

 scale, to ascertain this point. The result was found to be, that the diamond when 

 "burnt in oxygen gas, is converted wholly into carbonic acid gas. The conclusion 



