192 On Sulphuric Acid and Naphthaline. [1826. 



and transparent : they were almost tasteless, and by no means 

 so soluble either in hot or cold water as the former salts. They 

 were soluble in alcohol, and the solutions were perfectly neutral. 

 When heated on platinum foil, they gave but very little flame, 

 burning more like tinder, and leaving a carbonaceous mixture 

 of sulphuret and sulphate. When heated in a tube, they gave 

 off a small quantity of naphthaline, some empyreumatic fumes, 

 with a little sulphurous acid, and left the usual product. 



This salt seemed formed in largest quantity when one volume 

 of naphthaline and two volumes of sulphuric acid were shaken 

 together, at a temperature as high as it could be without 

 charring the substances. The tint, at first red, became olive- 

 green ; some sulphurous acid was evolved, and the whole would 

 ultimately have become black and charred, had it not been 

 cooled before it had proceeded thus far, and immediately dis- 

 solved in water. A solution was obtained, which though dark 

 itself, yielded, when rubbed with carbonate of baryta, colour- 

 less liquids ; and these when evaporated furnished a barytic 

 salt, burning without much flame, but which was not so crystal- 

 line as former specimens. No attempt to form the glowing 

 salt from the flaming salt by solution of caustic baryta, suc- 

 ceeded. 



Strontia. The compound of this earth with the acid already 

 described very much resembled the flaming salt of baryta. 

 When dry it was white, but not distinctly crystalline : it was 

 soluble in water and alcohol; not alterable in the air, but when 

 heated burnt with a bright flame, without any red tinge, and 

 left a result of the usual kind. 



Lime gave a white salt of a bitter taste, slightly soluble in 

 water, soluble in alcohol, the solutions yielding imperfect crystal- 

 line forms on evaporation : it burnt with flame ; and both in 

 the air and in tubes, when heated, gave results similar to those 

 of the former salts. 



Magnesia formed a white salt with a moderately bitter taste ; 

 crystallizing under favourable circumstances, burning with 

 flame, and giving such results by the action of heat as might 

 be expected. 



Iron. The metal was acted upon by the acid, hydrogen 

 being evolved. The moist protoxide being dissolved in the 

 acid gave a neutral salt capable of crystallization. This by 



