SULPHURIC ACID. 21 



mentioned, and forms common salt, a substance having 

 harmless properties in itself, and differing most widely 

 from either of those out of which it is formed. 



Sulphuric add is the common oil of vitrioL a. It 

 has commonly been called an oil, because of its thick 

 oily appearance, but has few other properties of oils. 

 It is, like them, rather soft and agreeable in its first 

 feeling upon the skin, but this sensation is instantly 

 iucceeded by an intense burning pain; for the acid is 

 to powerful in its corrosive effects, as to destroy both 

 skin and flesh wherever it touches. Cloth is at once 

 ruined by it, eaten out in holes. A ver)- small quan- 

 tity taken into the mmith and swallowed is fatal, as 

 all of the in' ' ed or seriously 



injured by i en many cases 



of death from accidentally swallowing even so small 

 a portion as part of a spoonful. 



b. The name acid would naturally cause us to sup- 

 pose that this liquid would be sour; and a taste of it 

 even when larg^ely diluted with water, shows it to be 

 ao i' '' thus diluted, so that the skin 



ma .it is not poisonous, and has 



a r sti-. 



/' ^ J ' t\ with blue litmus, a sulstance to 



be found in many apothecaries' shops, be dipped into 

 this or other acids, »♦ will become red : if the paper 

 thus turned red be dipped into a solution of nota>li <>r 

 8oda or ammonia, it will become blue agam. This 

 furnishes a t«^t by means of which we can tell whether 

 flui id or alkaline. 



< ^ irio acid is occasionally found in springs, 

 uncombintnl with any thing. There arc some in 

 western New York, near Lockport, where the water as 

 it comes from the spring is sour as vinegar, owing to 

 the pn'sence of free s»»lp)r M. 



d. This is a much hi. , lid than water. A 



