104 



PHOSPHORUS ACIDS AND OILS. 



If further instances are necessary to show the effect of pro- 

 portion in the promotion or suppression of combustion, in 

 reference to inflammable bodies and their supporters, it may 

 be mentioned that when phosphoretted hydrogen comes in con- 

 tact with atmospheric air, it takes fire and burns with great 

 splendor ; yet when mixed with oxygen gas in a small glass 

 tube, it does not undergo spontaneous combustion. u*. HffuUiio'j 



When phosphoretted hydrogen gas is mixed with chlorine it 

 burns with a greenish -yellow flame, but when one volume of the 

 former is added to three of the latter, they combine and disap- 

 pear altogether, and form muriatic acid and a brown matter. 



Phosphorus burns in atmospheric air at the common tem- 

 perature, 55 to 60, but will not do so in oxygen gas under 80 



1^1 i j 

 Fahrenheit. 



nr* 



When phosphuretted azotic gas is mixed with oxygen gas, 

 it becomes luminous, but when phosphuretted oxygen gas 

 and phosphuretted azotic gas are mixed together, no light 

 whatever is produced, even at the temperature of 82 Falireri- 

 licit, observed by Dr. Thompson. 



When oxygen is combined with sulphur on the proportions 

 of 2, or 3 to 1 the inflammability of sulphur no longer exists. 



In like manner nitrous oxide is capable of supporting com- 

 bustion, but when oxygen is united in greater proportion, that 

 power is no longer retained. 



At the common temperature, on mixture of the mineral acids 

 of great density with oils of the lesser specific gravity, spon- 

 taneous combustion, and vivid light are produced, which depend 

 on the generation of heat of high temperature occasioned by 

 the revolution of the atoms, of which the acids and oils are com- 

 posed, by the friction of which, the electricities are excited, arid 

 the action similar to the Voltaic is produced, by which the poles 

 of the molecules are set at liberty, to combine and form radiant 

 matter, and this never occurs unless the presence of the three 



elements, or primary rays (according to this hypothesis) , is evi- 



'[ ^ 



