FULMINATING MRKCURY. 1Q3 



(provided no explosion be produced), there remains in the snl. 

 phuric liquor, after tho separation of the gass, a white uninflam- 

 mable and uncrystallized powder mixed with some minute globulei 

 of quicksilver. 



" To estimate the quantity, and observe the naturo, of this unin- 

 flammable substance, I treated 100 grains of the fulminating mer- 

 cury with sulphuric acid a little diluted. The gass being sepa- 

 rated, I decanted off the liquor as it became clear, and freed 

 the insoluble powder from acid by edul< oration with distilled 

 water ; after which I dried it, and found it weighed only eighty, 

 four grains ; consequently had lost sixteen-grains of its original 

 weight. Suspecting, from the operation of the nitric acid in the 

 former experiment, that these eighty-four grains (with the excep- 

 tion of the quicksilver globules) were oxalate of mercury, I di- 

 gested them in nitrate of lime and found my suspicion just. The 

 mercury of the oxalate united to the nitric acid, and the oxalic 

 acid to the lime. A new insoluble compound was formed ; it 

 weighed, when washed and dry, 48.5 grains. Carbonate of potass 

 separated the lime, and formed oxalate of potass, capable of preci- 

 pitating lime. water and muriate of lime ; although it had been de- 

 purated from excess of alkali, and from carbonate acid, by a pre- 

 vious addition of acetous acid. That the mercury of the oxalate 

 in the eighty-four grains had united to the nitric acid of the ni- 

 trate of lime was proved, by dropping muriatic acid into liquor 

 from which the substance demonstrated to be oxalate of lime had 

 separated; for a copious precipitation of calomel instantly en* 

 sued. 



" The sulphuric liquor, decanted from the oxalate of mercury, 

 was now added to that with which it was edulcorated, and the 

 whole saturated with carbonate of potass. As effervescence ceased, 

 a cloudiness and precipitation followed ; and the precipitate being 

 collected, washed and dried, weighed 3.4 grains : it appeared to be 

 a carbonate of mercury. Upon evaporating a portion of the sa- 

 turated sulphuric liquor, I found nothing but sulphate of potass : 

 nor had it any metallic taste. There then remains, without allow- 

 ing for the weight of the carbonic united to the 3.4 grains, a deficit 

 from the 100 grains of mercurial powder of 12.6 grains, which I 

 ascribe to the gass separated by the action of the sulphuric acid. 

 To ascertain the quantity, and examine the nature of the gass 10 



