CHLORINE, BKOMINE, IODINE, AND FLUORINE. 161 



to leave it at the slightest invitation. The hydrogen of 

 the hydrochloric acid, therefore, at once strikes up a union 

 with this oxygen, and the chlorine of the acid being there- 

 fore forsaken by the hydrogen, a part of it unites with the 

 manganese to form a chloride of that metal, and a part of 

 it escapes and passes out through the tube. 



Manganese Hydrochloric Manganese w CM rf 



dioxide. acid. chloride. 



MnO 3 + 4HC1 = MnCl 2 + 2H 2 O + Cl a 



212. Breathing Chlorine. This gas can not be breathed 

 with safety unless very largely diluted with air. If breathed 

 when'but little diluted, it occasions violent coughing and a 

 suffocating effect. Great care, therefore, is requisite in pre- 

 paring it and in experimenting with it. The very small 

 quantity that is in the air where bleaching is carried on, or 

 where it is disengaged from chloride of lime for disinfecting 

 purposes, though decidedly appreciable to the sense of smell, 

 occasions no embarrassment in the respiration. 



213. Chlorine "Water. Water will dissolve twice its bulk 

 of chlorine. This solution, called chlorine water, may be 

 used in a variety of interesting experiments. You can 

 make it very readily by passing the gas generated by either 

 method described into a bottle containing water. The gas 

 will be absorbed, and will communicate a yellow color to 

 the water. Chlorine water keeps best in the dark, so some 

 black paper may be pasted around the bottle. 



214. Action of Chlorine on Metals. This gas has a strong 

 disposition to combine with the metals, forjning chlorides. 

 If you put some pure gold-leaf into chlorine water it will 

 soon disappear, because the chlorine forms with the gold a 

 chloride, which is dissolved in the water as fast as it forms. 

 In some cases so eager are the chlorine and the metal to 

 unite that the violence of the action occasions the phenom- 

 enon of combustion. Thus if antimony in fine powder be 



