312 Biography of Berzelius. 
t must be remarked, that in these investigations Berzelius as- 
sumed, as he had previously done in the case of hydrochloric acid, 
that fluoric acid was an oxygen acid, and that it contained a radi- 
cal, combined with two atoms of oxygen. But in the same year 
that he gave up the study of fluorine compounds, viz., in 1825, 
he observed in the first part of the third German edition of his 
“Lehrbuch,” that it was more probable that fluoric acid, like hy- 
drochloric acid, was a hydrogen acid; and he described all the 
fluorine compounds according to this view. } 
ogether with these comprehensive researches, Berzelius pub- 
lished a number of less extensive ones, They all originated in 
solution of carbonate of potash, as much chlerid of potassium as 
it would take up, atid passed chlorine through the liquid without 
saturating it. After a few minutes chlorid of potassium was prée- 
cipitated, which contained no chlorate of potash, or scarcely any ; 
the liquid had acquired the power of bleaching. When the liquid 
separated from the precipitated chlorid of potassium, and per- 
fectly saturated with chlorine, chlorate of potash was precipitated, 
containing scarcely any chlorid of potassium. Consequently, 
during the first action of the chlorine, chlorid of potassium must 
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