xi MURIATIC ACID AND CHLORINE 221 



action of charcoal heated to whiteness by a Voltaic battery, 

 led him : 



"to doubt of the existence of oxygen in that substance, 

 which has been supposed to contain it above all others in a 

 loose and active state ; and to make a more rigorous invest- 

 igation than had been hitherto attempted for its detection " 

 (A.C.R. IX. 23). 



He repeated the experiments of Gay-Lussac and Thenard 

 on the combination of hydrogen and chlorine, and con- 

 firmed their observation that the product was muriatic acid 

 gas free from any other substance except perhaps a mere 

 trace of water. 



But he could not discover any evidence of the presence 

 of oxygen in muriatic acid gas or in chlorine, and at the 

 close of the year he expressed his belief : 



"that the body improperly called in the modern nomen- 

 clature of chemistry, oxymuriatic add gas has not as yet been 

 decompounded; but that it is a peculiar substance, 

 elementary as far as our knowledge extends, and analogous 

 in many of its properties to oxygen gas." 



" To call a body, which is not known to contain oxygen, 

 and which cannot contain muriatic acid, oxymuriatic acid, 

 is contrary to the principles of that nomenclature in which 

 it is adopted." 



" After consulting some of the most eminent chemical 

 philosophers in this country, it has been judged most proper 

 to suggest a name founded upon one of its obvious and 

 characteristic properties its colour-- and to call it CHLORINE 

 or Chloric gas." 



"Should it hereafter be discovered to be a compound, 

 and even to contain oxygen, this name can imply no error, 

 and cannot necessarily require a change" (A.C.R. IX. 

 40, 59)- 



Elements and compounds. The controversy as to the 

 elementary nature of chlorine was of value in fixing clearly 



