﻿326 Transactions — Chemistry. 



I only point this out that I may not be misunderstood in the use I make 

 of the term neutrality, and not for the sake of opening a question, as I do not 

 attempt here' to remove the neiitral point thus arbitrarily located to a position 

 nearer to the true one, preferring to take up ground less subject to criticism, 

 and of more immediate interest, viz., that set forth in the heading of this 

 paper, to which, after the above necessary explanations, I now address myself. 



These reactions being in general so easy to obtain in the case of bodies 

 capable of manifesting them, I may perhaps be deemed hypercritical when, 

 in the course of this statement, it is found that my remarks tend to show that 

 the condition of certain of these bodies, as demonstrated by such tests, has been 

 mis-stated in our popular works on chemistry, and that this has tended inferenti- 

 ally to involve iis in further errors relative to the numerous substances chemically 

 allied thereto ; at the risk of being thought so, however, I do not hesitate to 

 make the following remarks, and the exact condition of such bodies shall be 

 the principal subject of this paper. 



The ores I particularly object to as having their true chai'acters in these 

 respects mis-stated, or inferentially liable to be misapjorehended, belong to a class 

 of salts insoluble, or neai-ly so, in water. They are the carbonates, borates, 

 silicates, phosphates, and arseniates of the alkaline earths (lime, baryta, strontia), 

 also of magnesia, silver, and lead. Theoretically they should be alkaline, from 

 the following considerations. 



Taking an equivalent of any of these bases and combining it with one of 

 sulphuric or any of the stronger acids, we have a salt corresponding to those 

 of the alkaline mono-sulphates in being neutral. Thus, under these conditions, 

 the bases referred to are, equivalent for equivalent, equal in degree of alkalinity 

 to that of the alkalies (potash, soda, etc.), and, therefore, the corresponding salts 

 of these two classes throughout should possess one common character in respect 

 to this particular reaction, 



ISTow the alkaline carbonates, borates, and their common phosphates, etc, 

 give a very decided alkaline reaction with litmus paper properly prepared ; 

 they are indisputably alkaline, but the corresponding salts of lime, strontia, 

 etc., are, as a rule, accepted either from experimental results direct, or from 

 inferences based on them, as being neutral, although, from the above consider- 

 ations, they ought to be alkaline. 



The importance of ascertaining which of these two assumptions is correct 

 is obvious, for, if these salts are in reality neutral, we learn, and must take 

 cognizance of, a radical difference existing either in the acids or the bases of 

 which these salts are made up, according as the other portion of the salt is 

 possessed of powerful or weak affinities. In such a case lime, for instance, 

 would not retain the same degree of saturating power (quanti valence) through 

 all its combinations with the acids, the degree of this in any case being deter- 



