"^^ [[ 140 3 



XL On the mutual action of sulphuric acid and naphthaline, and 

 on a new acid produced. By M. Faraday, F. R. S. Cor- 

 responding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences y ^c. &c. 

 Communicated January 12, 1826. 



Read February 16, 1826. 



In a Paper on new compounds of carbon and hydrogen, lately 

 honoured by the Royal Society with a place in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, I had occasion briefly to notice, the 

 peculiar action exerted on certain of those compounds by 

 sulphuric acid. During my attempts to ascertain more 

 minutely the general nature of this action, I was led to sus- 

 pect the occasional combination of the hydro-carbonaceous 

 matter with the acid, and even its entrance into the constitu- 

 tion of the salts, which the acid afterwards formed with bases. 

 Although this opinion proved incorrect, relative to the pecu- 

 liar hydro-carbons forming the subject of that Paper, yet it 

 led to experiments upon analogous bodies, and amongst 

 others, upon naphthaline, which terminated in the production 

 of the new acid body and salts now to be described. 



Some of the results obtained by the use of the oil gas 

 products are very peculiar. If, when completed, I find them 

 sufficiently interesting, I shall think it my duty to place 

 them before the Royal Society, as explicatory of that action 

 of sulphuric acid which was briefly noticed in my last Paper. 



Most authors who have had occasion to describe naph- 

 thaline, have noticed its habitudes with sulphuric acid. 



