274 BALARD’'S RESEARCHES CONCERNING THE NATURE OF 
ehloric acid. Although this fact may be consistently explained by sup- 
posing that the presence of a chloride of an oxide in the saturated so- 
lution of chloride of potassium has diminished, in this case, the solvent 
power of the liquid with respect to this compound, and that the salt 
which is obtained is only a portion of that which previously existed in 
the liquor, and thus is not produced by the action of the chlorine, as 
supposed by Berzelius, the first explanation is yet the most probable, 
and induces the belief that metallic chlorides exist ready formed in the 
decolorizing compounds. 
M. Soubeiran has confirmed this fact by an experiment which 
appears to me to be at present the only one not liable to objections. 
After having determined, by a preliminary trial, the intensity of the 
decolorizing power of a given volume of chloride of soda, he evaporated 
it % vacuo to dryness. He has stated that during the evaporation 
eubic crystals of chloride of sodium are formed, wiih may be sepa- 
rated in a state of perfect purity ; and that the remaining solid residue 
dissolved in water and tested with a coloured but not acid liquor, 
possessed absolutely the same decolorizing power as the liquid from 
which it was procured. This decolorizing power not having suffered any 
diminution, it cannot be admitted that the chloride of sodium obtained 
was the product of the decomposition of the decolorizing compound. 
This chloride of sodium, therefore, existed in the solution of the alka- 
line chloride before its evaporation. If, then, in acting upon an alkali; 
the chlorine had formed chloride of sodium, without the production of 
a corresponding quantity of chlorate, of oxygenated water, or of gas- 
eous oxygen, it necessarily follows that an hah poe compound was 
formed, different from chloric acid. 
The erystallization of chlorite of soda in vacuo, led M. Soubeiran to 
hope that he should succeed in isolating chlorous acid. But the con- 
tinuation of his researches, although announced three years since, has 
not yet been published. 
It will be observed, from what has preceded, that there may still 
exist among chemists some indecision as to the choice which may be 
made between the two hypotheses proposed as to the nature of the 
decolorizing compounds of chlorine. Although the hypothesis of 
chlorites is by much the most probable, it is nevertheless true, that not 
only chlorous acid has not been obtained in a free state, but even 
chlorites also; they not having been yet procured, but in a state of 
mixture with the metallic chlorides. 
Thus, although very probable, the existence of these salts is far 
from being demonstrated, and the composition of chlorous acid, which 
was supposed to be formed of two volumes of chlorine and three 
volumes of oxygen, remains undecided. 
It appeared, therefore, to me desirable to attempt some fresh expe- 
riments, with the endeavour of elucidating a theoretical chemical 
