194 TJ. S. Hunt on the Relations of Water and Hydrogen. 
corals belong to the genus Trematopora and Cladopora, while 
t 
wo or more species of F'avosites were observed. A few shells 
‘only were collected, and these, with a single exception, belong to . 
——— 
Art. XVIIIl.— On the Theoretical Relations of Water and Hy- 
drogen; by T. 8. Huw, Chemist to the Geological Commis- 
sion of Canada. 
In carrying out his theory of types, M. Laurent proposed to 
consider water H:O:2, having its equivalent represented by fout 
volumes of vapor, as the type of the oxyds like M2Oz, of the hy- 
droxyds (MH )Oz, and of the sulphurets corresponding to these 
two classes. By his system of compound radicals, Liebig had 
extended to organic chemistry the nomenclature of Lavoisier, 
and he looked upon spirit of. wine CiH:<Q:2, as the hydrated 
oxyd of a radical ethyl (C1 Hs = Et), while hydric ether C1H:0, 
was the simple oxyd of the same radical. But as ether-vapor 
contains in the same volume, twice as much carbon as the vapor 
of alcohol, Gerhardt had already proposed to double the formula 
of ether, and Laurent now showed that while alcohol is to be re- 
and should be written Et:Oz. Hence while ether is neutral, 
alcohol is monobasic, having an equivalent of hydrogen replacea- 
ble by a metal, and is the type of monobasic vinie acids, while 
water 1s the type of bibasic acids. (Laurent, Récherches sur les 
Combinaisons azotées. Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., Nov. 1846.) 
In.a review of that remarkable essay, published in this Journal 
for Sept., 1848 (vol. vi, p. 173), I suggested that this view WaS 
‘susceptible of still farther extension, and that we may inelude in 
the same type all those saline combinations (acids) which conta 
oxygen.” I referred to the hypochlorites. CLO, MO, as deriva 
* 
tives of the type H2Oz, in which Cl replaces H; being (CIH)O 
