VOL. XC.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 663 



been called predisposing or conspiring, a proof that such affinities really exist, will 

 I think be afforded, by comparing the quantity of oxalic acid which can be gene- 

 rated from given measures of nitrous acid and alcohol, with the intervention of 

 mercury, and the intervention of other metals. For instance, when 2 measured 

 ounces of alcohol are treated with a solution of 100 gr. of nickel in a measured 

 ounce and a half of nitrous acid, little or no precipitate is produced ; yet, by the 

 addition of oxalic acid to the residuary liquor, a quantity of oxalate of nickel, after 

 some repose, is deposited. Copper affords another illustration: 100 gr. of copper, 

 dissolved in a measured 14? oz. of nitrous acid, and treated with alcohol, yielded me 

 about 18 gr. only of oxalate; though cupreous oxalate was plentifully generated, 

 by dropping oxalic acid into the residuary liquor. About 21 gr. of pure oxalic acid 

 seem to be produced, from the same materials, when 100 gr. of mercury are inter- 

 posed. (See § 14). Besides, according to the Dutch paper, more than once 

 referred to, acetous acid is the principal residue after the preparation of nitrous 

 ether. How can we explain the formation of a greater quantity of oxalic acid, 

 from the same materials, with the intervention of 100 gr. of mercury, than with 

 the intervention of 100 gr. of copper, otherwise than by the notion of conspiring 

 affinities, so analogous to what we see in other phenomena of nature? 



I have attempted, without success, to communicate fulminating properties, by 

 means of alcohol, to gold, platina, antimony, tin, copper, iron, lead, zink, nickel, 

 bismuth, cobalt, arsenic, and manganese; but I have not yet sufficiently varied my 

 experiments, to enable me to speak with absolute certainty. Silver, when 20 gr. 

 of it were treated with nearly the same proportions of nitrous acid and alcohol as 

 100 gr. of mercury, yielded, at the end of the operation, about 3 gr. of a gray 

 precipitate, which fulminated with extreme violence. Mr. Cruick shank had the 

 goodness to repeat the experiment: he dissolved 40 gr. of silver in 2 oz. of the 

 strongest nitrous acid diluted with an equal quantity of water, and obtained, by 

 means of 2 oz. of alcohol, 60 gr. of a very white powder, which fulminated like 

 the gray precipitate above described. It probably combines with the same principles 

 as the mercury, and of course differs from Mr. Berthollet's fulminating silver, 

 alluded to in p. 662. I observe, that a white precipitate is always produced in the 

 first instance, and that it may be preserved, by adding water, as soon as it is 

 formed; otherwise, when the mother liquor is abundant, it often becomes gray, 

 and is re dissolved. 



p. s. Since the preceding pages were written, I have been permitted by Lord 

 Howe, Lieut. General of the Ordnance, to make the following trials of the mer- 

 curial powder, at Woolwich, in conjunction with Col. Blomefield, and Mr. 

 Cruickshank. 



Exper. 1. From the manner in which the screw of the gun-breech, mentioned 

 in § 5, had acted on the barrel, it was imagined, that by bursting an iron case, 

 exactly fitted to the bore of a cannon, its sudden enlargement might make many 

 flaws, and split the piece, without dispersing any splinters. In conformity to this 



