S^^ COMPOSITION OP SULPIIL'lUC ETIIEB. 



vapours at the approach of muriatic acid, produced no 

 perceptible change in the infusion of litmus, or if it had 

 any effect it was reddening it. There \vas no water in the 

 receiver. 

 oxicarburetted 5, Lastl}^, 3541 cubic inches of oxicarburetted hidro- 

 hiflrogen 948 gg^ g^g^ at 27 Inches 3 lines of the barometer, and 16° R. 

 ' [68'' F.]. In this there was no mixture of carbonic acid 



and a thick §^^ ' ^^^ there came over with it into the receivers a thick 

 yellow smoke, yellow smoke, with a strong smell of benzoin and empy- 

 reuma. This vapour was partly lost in the water of the 

 trough, on the top of which ao insoluble pellicle was found 

 floating, after it had stood a few days. When I detonated 

 this inflammable gas immediately after it was formed, and 

 while the vapour was suspended in it, it produced more car^. 

 bonic acid gas, than when it was condensed. Every thing 

 therefore indicates, that this smoke was the vapour of oil. 

 The gas weigh- The gas was not weighed and analysed till twenty-four 

 ed and ana- hours after its extrication, and the complete disappearance 

 of the vapour. That which was formed in the first periods 

 of the distillation was lighter, and contained Jess carbon, 

 than what was produced toward the end, though the heat 

 of the porcelain tube did not vary. On taking a mean be- 

 tween three portions of this gas weighed at the beginning, 

 middle, and end of the process, I found, that 3541 cubic 

 inches weighed 948 grains*. 



lysed. 



Weight and 



^ At 28 inches of the barometer, and 10" of the thermometer 

 compositron of [54 5» F.], 1000 cubic inches of oxicarburetted hidrogen gas weigh 

 oxicarburetted 285 grains. That obtained from a similar distillation by the Dutch 

 hidrogen vary chemists weighed under the same circumstances 32G grains. That 

 circumstances, which Mr. Cruiclishanks produced weighed 297 grains. Accord- 

 ing to this author, 100 cubic inches of this gas consume \l6 of ox- 

 igen gas in forming 108 of carbonic acid gas. Nothing is more 

 variable than tlie weight and composition of this gas according to 

 the degree of- tire, the diameter of the incandescent tube, its incli- 

 nation in the furnace, and the period of the experiment, at which 

 the gas is collected. I conceive, if this gentleman had weighed 

 and analysed it at every period of its developerient, he would have 

 found in it less carbon. I speak here of the quantity of carbonic 

 acid gas produced by the cambustion of the inflammable gas, and 

 not of the absolute quantity of carbon he ascribes to it: this ap- 

 peals less than mine, because he reckons much less, carbon in the 

 carbonic acid. 



The 



