376 ox THE I>ECOMPOSITION OF THE EARTHS. 



absorbed, and the. nitrogen unaltered ; when a portion of it 

 was introduced into water, it acted upon it with great vio^ 

 lencc and Slink to the bottom, producing in itbarytes ; and 

 hidrogen was generated. The quantities in which I obtained 

 it were too minute for me to be able to examine correctly 

 cither its physical or chemical properties. It sunk rapidly 

 in water, and even in sulphuric acid, though surrounded by 

 globules of hidrogen, equal to two or three times its vo- 

 lume ; from which it seems probable, that it cannot be less 

 than four or five times as heavy as water. It flattened by 

 pressure, but required a considerable force for this effect. 

 Base of stron- The mctal from strontites sunk in sulphuric acid, and ex- 

 tia. hibited the same characters as that from bary tes, except ia 



producing strontites by oxidation. 



Base of lime. The metal from lime I have never been able to examine 



exposed to air or under naphtha. In the case in w'hich I was; 



able to distil the quicksilver from it to the greatest extent, the 



tube unfortunately broke, while warm, and at the moment 



that the air entered, the metal, which had the colour and 



lustre of silver, instantly took fire, and burnt with an in^ 



tense white light into quicklime. 



Ba<;e of mag- The metal from magnesia seemed to act upon the glass, 



iieiU. even before the whole of the quicksilver was distilled from 



it. In an experiment in which I stopped the process before 



the mercury was entirely driven off, it appeared as a solid, 



having the san>e whiteness and lustre as the other metals of 



yet too small, to enable me to separate and examine the products, 

 and till this is done, no ultimate conclusion can be drawn. 



The action of potassium upon muriatic acid gas indicates a much 

 larger quantity of water in this substance, than the action of elec- 

 tricity in Dv. Henry's elaborate experiments ; but in the one instance 

 the acid enters into a solid salt, and in the other it remains aeri- 

 form ; and the difficulty of decomposition by electricity must in- 

 crease in proportion as the quantity of water diminishes, so that at 

 the apparent maximum of electrical effect, there is no reason to 

 suppose the gas free from water. 



Those persons who have supposed hidrogen to be the basis of 

 muriatic acid may, perhaps, give another solution of the pheno- 

 mena, and consider the experiment I have detailed as a proof of 

 this opinion. 



the. 



