BARYTES AND BARIUM. 271 



Sulphuric acid 5 

 Barytes 9'75] 



14-75 



The salt being neutral, and 5 being the atomic 

 weight of sulphuric acid, it is plain that 9*7^ 

 must be the atomic weight of barytes. 



Muriate of barytes is a white, pungent, and 

 disagreeably tasted salt, which crystallizes in very 

 short four-sided prisms with square bases. I 

 find by a careful analysis of these crystals, that 

 they are composed of 



1 atom muriatic acid = 4*625 

 1 atom barytes = 9'750 



1 atom water = 1/125 



15-5 



If 15-5 grains of it be exposed to a red heat, 

 they are reduced to 13-25 grains ; so that the 

 loss sustained, owing to the escape of water, is 

 2-25 grains. This loss is equivalent to two atoms 

 of water; one of these atoms existed in the 

 salt as water of crystallization ; the other atom 

 was formed by the muriate of barytes being con- 

 verted into chloride of barium. 



Gay-Lussac and Thenard ascertained that Peroxide of 



* * banum. 



when anhydrous barytes is heated in oxygen gas, 

 a portion of the gas is absorbed, and the barytes 

 is converted into a peroxide. This peroxide is 



