on a new detonating Substance, 245 



filled with mercury and inverted, a violent detonation occurred, 

 by which I was slightly wounded in the head and hands, and 

 should have been severely wounded, had not my eyes and face 

 been defended by a plate of glass attached to a proper cap, a 

 precaution very necessary in all investigations of this body. 



In using smaller quantities and recently distilled mercury, 

 I obtained the results of the experiments, without any violence 

 of action ; and though it is probable that some accidental cir- 

 cumstance might have occasioned the explosion of the two 

 grains, yet I thought it prudent, in my subsequent experiments, 

 to employ quantities which, in case of detonation, would be in- 

 sufficient to do any serious mischief. 



In the most accurate experiment that I made, ^ths of a 

 grain of the compound produced, by its action upon mercury, 

 49 grain measures of azote. I collected the white powder 

 which had been formed in this and other operations of the 

 same kind, and exposed it to heat. It sublimed unaltered, 

 without giving off any elastic or fluid matter, which there is 

 the greatest reason to believe would not have happened, if the 

 compound had contained hydrogen, or oxygen, or both. The 

 sublimed substance had the properties of a mixture of corrosive 

 sublimate and calomel. 



If the results of this experiment be calculated upon, it must 

 be concluded that the compound consists of 57 of azote to 643 

 of chlorine in weight, or 19 to 81 in volume; but this quantity 

 of azote is probably less than the true proportion, as there 

 must have been some loss from evaporation, during the time 

 the compound was transferred, and it is possible that a minute 

 quantity of it may have adhered to mercury not immediately 

 within the tube, 



Kks 



