266 MR. C. SCHORLEMMER ON THE CHEMICAL 



compounds formed by this reaction are not direct com- 

 binations of chlorine and a base, as Berthollet believed, 

 but that a hypochlorite and a chloride are produced simul- 

 taneously, according to the equation 



2K0H + Cl 2 =K0Cl + KCl-t-H 2 0. 



When to the compounds thus formed a small quantity 

 of a mineral acid is added, hypochlorous acid is set free ; 

 whilst by adding the acid in excess, only chlorine is ob- 

 tained, because in the latter case the hydrochloric acid 

 acts on the hypochlorous acid in the following way : — 



ClH + C10H=Cl i +H i O. 



As a ready method for preparing a dilute solution of 

 hypochlorous acid, Gay-Lussac recommends to distil a 

 solution of bleaching-powder with a quantity of dilute 

 nitric acid which is just sufficient to liberate the hypo- 

 chlorous acid. 



According to Gay-Lussac's view, bleaching-powder is a 

 mixture of calcium chloride and calcium hypochlorite ; and 

 the same view is held by most chemists ; Prof. Odling, how- 

 ever, has pointed out that, calcium being a dyad metal, the 



{CI 

 opt 



or it was, at the same time, a hypochlorite and a chloride. 

 Of course both views explain equally well the formation of 

 hypochlorous acid by Gay-Lussac ? s method; and I read, 

 therefore, with great surprise a paper by Goepner (Ding- 

 ler's Polytechn. Journ. vol. ccix. p. 204), in which he 

 states that bleaching-powder is nothing but a simple com- 

 bination of lime and chlorine, which, by acids, is again 

 resolved into its constituents without the J east trace of 

 hypochlorous acid being formed. He says that although 

 the preparation of hypochlorous acid by this method is 

 described in all handbooks as if this experiment had been 



