80 On Fluid Chlorine. [1823. 



separate it from the remaining portion. In this way a more 

 complete decomposition of the hydrate was effected ; and, when 

 the whole was allowed to cool, neither of the fluids solidified at 

 temperatures above 34, and the yellow portion not even at 0. 

 When the two were mixed together, they gradually combined 

 at temperatures below 60, and formed the same solid sub- 

 stances as that first introduced. If, when the fluids were sepa- 

 rated, the tube was cut in the middle, the parts flew asunder 

 as if with an explosion, the whole of the yellow portion dis- 

 appeared, and there was a powerful atmosphere of chlorine 

 produced ; the pale portion on the contrary remained, and when 

 examined, proved to be a weak solution of chlorine in water, 

 with a little muriatic acid, probably from the impurity of the 

 hydrate used. When that end of the tube in which the yellow 

 fluid lay was broken under a jar of water, there was an imme- 

 diate production of chlorine gas. 



I at first thought that muriatic acid and euchlorine had been 

 formed ; then, that two new hydrates of chlorine had been pro- 

 duced ; but at last I suspected that the chlorine had been 

 entirely separated from the water by the heat, and condensed 

 into a dry fluid by the mere pressure of its own abundant 

 vapour. Jf that were true, it followed that chlorine gas, when 

 compressed, should be condensed into the same fluid ; and as 

 the atmosphere in the tube in which the fluid lay was not very 

 yellow at 50 or 60, it seemed probable that the pressure 

 required was not beyond what could readily be obtained by a 

 condensing syringe. A long tube was therefore furnished with 

 a cap and stopcock, then exhausted of air and filled with chlo- 

 rine, and being held vertically with the syringe upwards, air was 

 forced in, which thrust the chlorine to the bottom of the tube, 

 and gave a pressure of about 4 atmospheres. Being now 

 cooled, there was an immediate deposit in films, which appeared 

 to be hydrate, formed by water contained in the gas and 

 vessels, but some of the yellow fluid was also produced. As 

 this, however, might also contain a portion of the water present, 

 a perfectly dry tube and apparatus were taken, and the chlo- 

 rine left for some time over a bath of sulphuric acid before 

 it was introduced. Upon throwing in air and giving pressure, 

 there .was now no solid film formed, but the clear yellow fluid 

 was deposited, and more abundantly still upon cooling. After 



