CHEMISTRY SINCE TIME OF DALTON 



of soda, soon attracted moisture from a damp atmos- 

 phere and became fluid. 



"This result was unexpected, but it was far from 

 convincing me that the substances which were ob- 

 tained were generated. In a similar process with glass 

 tubes, carried on under exactly the same circumstances 

 and for the same time, I obtained a quantity of alkali 

 which must have been more than twenty times greater, 

 but no traces of muriatic acid. There was much prob- 

 ability that the agate contained some minute portion of 

 saline matter, not easily detected by chemical analysis, 

 either in combination or intimate cohesion in its pores. 

 To determine this, I repeated this a second, a third, and 

 a fourth time. In the second experiment turbidness 

 was still produced by a solution of nitrate of 'silver in 

 the tube containing the acid, but it was less distinct; 

 in the third process it was barely perceptible; and in 

 the fourth process the two fluids remained perfectly 

 clear after the mixture. The quantity of alkaline 

 matter diminished in every operation ; and in the last 

 process, though the battery had been kept in great ac- 

 tivity for three days, the fluid possessed, in a very 

 slight degree, only the power of acting on paper tinged 

 with turmeric ; but its alkaline property was very sen- 

 sible to litmus paper slightly reddened, which is a much 

 mure delicate test; and after evaporation and the proc- 

 ess by carbonate of ammonia, a barely perceptible 

 quantity of fixed alkali was still left. The acid matter 

 in the other tube was abundant; its taste was sour; it 

 smelled like water over which large quantities of nitrous 

 gas have been long kept; it did not effect solution of 

 muriate of barytes ; and a drop of it placed upon a pol- 



5* 



