400 Miscellanies. 



minute, or two thousand eight hundred and eighty cubic metres per 

 day. A leaden weight of eight pounds, supported by a string being 

 placed in the tube was rapidly thrown out, by the water. 



The water, which at first, had a peculiar taste, but not disagree- 

 able, is now very limpid and insipid, and its temperature 66° of Fah- 

 renheit. The total expense of the well, was two hundred and six- 

 ty three fran,cs. — BuU. D' Encouragement, Sept. 1833. 



24. On oxalic acid; by Gay Lussac. (J. G.)— It is well known to 

 chemists, that oxalic acid when heated is in part volatilized, and that 

 the remainder is decomposed, giving rise to a mixture of carbonic acid 

 and an inflammable gas. Desirous of understanding more particu- 

 larly the nature of the inflammable gas, I put some very pure crys- 

 tals of this acid into a glass retort and heated it gradually. At 

 98° C. it was wholly melted, at 110° an elastic fluid was disengaged 

 along with watery vapor, which increased as the temperature of the 

 acid rose by the loss of its water of crystallization. From 120° to 

 130° C. the disengagement of gas was extremely rapid, and contin- 

 ued so until the entire destruction of the oxalic acid. 



This easy decomposition of oxalic acid by a very moderate heat, 

 is the more remarkable, as it was the less to be expected, and among 

 vegetable acids, the oxalic was considered as one of the most stable. 

 Its decomposition, when heated with concentrated sulphuric acid, 

 into equal volumes of carbonic acid and oxide of carbon, was not 

 contrary to that opinion, and was easily explained on the powerful 

 affinity of sulphuric acid for water, by virtue of which it destroys 

 and carbonizes a great number of organic substances. 



An examination of the gases which I thus obtained, proved that 

 they were, very nearly, a mixture of 6 parts of carbonic acid, and 5 

 of oxide of carbon. This proportion did not vary much during the 

 operation, although, towards the last, the carbonic acid somewhat 

 prevailed. 



The decomposition of oxalic acid by a moderate heat rendered 

 the agency of sulphuric acid doubtful; I ascertained, that decompo- 

 sition commenced at about the same temperature, with or without 

 the sulphuric acid, viz. 110° to 115° C. But an essential differ- 

 ence is, that with sulphuric acid, we obtain a mixture of equal vol- 

 umes of carbonic acid and oxide of carbon, as Doberelner observed, 

 while by heat alone they are as 6 to 5. The differejice suggests the 

 though't that during the decomposition, effected without sulphuric 



