or THE COMPOUNDS OF SULPHUJR AND OXYGEN. JQS 



ffinacy, the adion of the peftle. The powder had a ftraw 

 yellow colour. Its properties differ, we fee, from roll fulphur, 

 which is remarkably brittle, and whofe fpecific gravity does 

 not exceed 2. 



To afcertain whether this fuppofed oxide really contained It feems to con- 

 oxygen, I treated 100 parts of it with nitric acid till the whole !^'" %'"'"*" P"'" 



•' ° '^ tion ol oxygcai, 



was converted into fulphuric acid. The procefs was as te- though perhaps 



dious as the acidification of common fulphur, by means of the "°'.«"o"b'^ tp 

 r -IT,- r , -r ' , r , • entitle it to the 



lame acid. By nitrate of barytes I obferved a precipitate, name of oxid«. 



which, after being reddened in a platinum crucible, weighed 



667, indicating 160 parts of fulphuric acid; the fuppofed 



oxide had abforbed, of courfe, 60 parts of oxygen. Hence 



we have fulphuric acid compofed of 



62.5 fuppofed oxide 



37.5 oxygen 



100.0 

 But 100 part of pure fulphur would have abforbed nearly 64- 

 of oxygen, and formed 164- of fulphuric acid. Hence it follows 

 that the fuppofed oxide is compofed of 



97.6 fulphur 

 2.4 oxygen 



100.0 

 Though the refult of a fimilar experiment was nearly the 

 fame ; yet the proportion of oxygen is certainly too fmall to 

 authorize us, in the prefent flate of chemical analyfis, to con- 

 clude that the fuppofed oxide really contains 2| per cent, of 

 oxygen : for lo fmall a deviation from the compofition of fulphu- 

 ric acid, by acidifying common fulphur, as 2| per cent, may, 

 very probably, be owing to an error of analyfis. At the fame 

 time the uniformity of my refults inclines me to believe that 

 this fuppofed oxide of the French chemifts really contains 

 fome oxygen. 



3. As no fatisfadory refult was likely to be obtained by ex- Oxigenatlon of 

 pofing fulphur to heat and air, it became neceflary to try the "^ ^"^ /!°"^* 

 effeds of thofe chemical agents which are capable of commu- 

 nicating oxygen to other bodies. Sulphuric acid could not be 

 ufed, becaufe fulphur converts it into fnlphurous acid ; the 

 efFe6t of nitric acid was well known ; but the adlion of oxy- 

 muriatic acid had not been tried. Some of the foreign chemifts, 



indeed. 



