on the Alcohol of Sulphur ^ or Sulphuret of Carbon. 179 



previously dried by muriate of lime, to pass through a portion 

 of the alcohol of sulphur, and afterwards through a quantity 

 of distilled water, over which it was collected. The oily liquid 

 suffered no other change than that of acquiring an orange hue. 

 After an hour and a half the process was stopped, and the 

 liquor was found to have absorbed a considerable quantity of 

 the gas, which had imparted to it a peculiar and extremely 

 strong odour. Most of the gas, however, had passed thi'ough 

 the water, in which it had deposited a portion of the oily liquid 

 unaltered. The water had acquired a peculiar smell, and con- 

 tained, after the expulsion of the oxymuriatic gas, a little mu- 

 riatic acid, with a vestige of sulphuric acid. Here again it 

 remained doubtful", whether the production of muriatic acid 

 was owing to the alcohol of sulphur containing hydrogen, 

 which, by uniting with the oxygen of the oxymuriatic acid, had 

 formed water ; or whether this appearance of minute quan- 

 tities of muriatic and sulphuric acid, might not be explained 

 in some other manner. It will hereafter be s^en how the last 

 conjecture was verified ; but in the mean time it was suffici- 

 ently shewn, by the experiment just related, that if the alcohol 

 of sulphur really contain hydrogen, it must be in very small 

 quantity, and probably from some accidental circumstance, 

 since the greater part of the liquor remained undecompounded, 

 and with no other alteration than the absorption of the oxy- 

 muriatic gas. In the course of a few days, however, the oil 

 gradually lost the smell of this gas, and acquired that of the 

 muriated sulphur, described by Dr. Thomson, (Sir H. Davy's 

 sulphurane). The liquor thus treated, on being exposed to 

 the action of water, lost its colour, and resumed its original 



MDCCCXIII. B b 



