362 NltRIC ACID AND AMMONIA FORMED BY GALVANISM, 



detects y^o^ of its weight in water acidulated with sulphu- 

 ric acid, and surpasses in sensibility for this acid all other 

 Veagents. 

 Mild nitrate of The mild nitrate of mercury is almost as sensible a test of 

 oTphosphorie t},e phosphoric as of the muriatic acid ; with this difference, 

 acid. that the precipitate with the former is soluble in an excess 



of phosphoric or nitric acid, but that with the latter is ab- 

 solutely insoluble in an excess of any acid whatever. 



XL 



Some farther Remarks on the pretended Formation of 

 Muriatic Acid in Wrier by the Influence of the Galvanic 

 Inquiry into the P& ■ % Professor Pfaff, of Kiel. 



formation of T 



muriatic acid by JL HAVE continued my researches into the pretended for- 



galvamsm. mation of muriatic acid in water, by the influence of the 

 Apparatus. 



positive pole of Volta's pile. I have employed glass tubes 



of various diameters, from one line to an inch. The tubes 

 were closed at bottom, into which the conducting wires 

 were cemented with sealing wax. The communication be- 

 tween the two tubes, into one of which the influence of the 

 positive pile was conducted, while that of the negative com- 

 municated with the other, was made at the top, sometimes 

 by wet paper, sometimes by linen threads, sometimes by 

 tendons, and sometimes by muscular fibre. I likewise va- 

 ried the metal of the wires, employing successively platina, 



No traces of a \^ silver, copper, and iron. 



muriatic acid. 07 7 rr 7 



In all my experiments I could never obtain the least trace 

 of muriatic acid, though my test, the mild nitrate of mer- 



hwever 1 cury, the most sensible of all for this acid, would have in- 



dicated the presence of ^^5 of a grain. But I found by 

 litmus paper indications of an acid ; which certainly was 

 neither the muriatic, sulphuric, carbonic, nor phosphoric ; 



since the nicest tests of these acids, which greatly exceed lit— 

 P;obab3y nitric. . -u-i-x • <.,. ■ t n 



mus in sensibility, gave no signs 01 their presence. In all pro- 

 bability therefore, it could be nothing but the nitric acid. 

 Both from the I always obtained traces of an alkali too, which from 

 azote in the every test was ammonia. I cannot therefore but adhere to 

 my opinion, that the acid and alkali are formed at the ex- 

 pense of the nitrogen adhering to the water ; which on one 

 side unites with oxigen, on the other with bidrogen. 



XII. 



