474 PELOUZE ON CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF A NEW ACID, 
sition of the same class as the singular ones which M. Thénard 
observed with oxigenated water. In fact this is the case: many bodies 
which decompose the deutoxide of hydrogen, without either losing 
or gaining anything; equalty decompose the nitrosulohates. Amongst 
these are the fine spongy platina, oxide of si/ver, metallic silver, pow- 
dered charcoal, oxide of manganese: the two first bodies act moreover 
with extreme rapidity vpor the nitrosulohate of ammonia. 
I convinced myself that this remarkable phenomenon was due, as in 
the case of the oxygenated water, to an action of presence, and that 
nothing is ever prodeced but a simnle transformation o: the nitrosul- 
phate of ammonia into protoxide.of azote and sulphate ox ammonia. 
Oxide of silver is not reduced; for if we wash it, aiter having caused 
it to decompose a great quantity of salt, it aissoives finally in nitric 
acid, without ‘he disengagement of red fumes. 
Ii was interesting to attempt to obtain tne metallic nitrosu]phates by 
-pouring a solution of nitrosu'phate oi ammonia into salis whose bases 
were oxides insoluble in water. The experiment was made with liquids 
previously cooled to seveial degrees below zero ; it gave the following 
results. Chloride of mercury, the sulphates of zine and copper, the 
persulphate of ivon, the protonitrate of mercury, ihe chloruret of 
chrome, the niivate of silver, prod uced a brisk effervescence, which is 
atiribuiable to a disengagement of the protoxide of azote: there was 
formed a‘ the same time sulphate of ammonia, which mixed with these 
saline solutions withovi lessening their transparence. With acetate 
of iead there was also an efiervescence and production of sulphate of 
lead. 
It would be very difficult to discover the probable cause of these 
singular phenomena; bv: from tbis very cause, of their nresent inexplica- 
bility, they appeared to me the more to mevit the attention of chemists ; 
and what indeed is more calculated to excite curiosity than to see a salt, 
by simple contact with a body which absolutely gives nothing to. it 
and takes nothing from it, decompose with an extreme rapidiiy, and 
form new substances, in the midst of which the agent. which pro- 
duces these violent actions remains chemically passive ? 
We arealready acquainted with two bodies, oxygenated water and 
hydruret of sulphur, possessing the property of decomposing under the 
influence of a simple action of presence. M. Thénard, to whom we 
owe the first observation, had foreseen that facts of this kind would 
multiply, and that they would open to the chemist a new field for in- 
:quiry which would enlarge every day. 
I should not omit to mention another fact, which bringsinto still closer 
-eonnection the nitrosulphates of oxigenated water; namely, that these 
salts, mixed with alkaline solutions, cease to decompose under the in- 
fluence of the same bodies which destroy them-so rapidly when they 
