DECOMPOSITION OF FLUORIC ACID. g(J 



instantaneously becomes incandescent, a state that announ- 

 ces a great emission of caloric, and consequently a sudden 

 condensation of some principles. 



I shall not terminate this note, without imparting to the 

 institute a fact, that appears to me very important, but 

 from which I shall refrain from drawing any inference. It 

 is as follows. 



I have observed, that in several experiments I made to de- Metallic f '°- 

 7 r _ bules produced 



compose borate of soda by means of charcoal, metallic glo- in a mixture 



bules were produced, which appeared to be formed in the j. arcoal 

 . , and borax, 



midst of the mixture : but as I found, that this metallic 



product was of the same nature as the vessel in which I 



made my experiments, I intend to repeat them in a tube of 



platina, in order to ascertain, whether those of iron, which 



I employed, did not concur in the formation of the metallic 



globules I obtained. 



However, this is not the only occasion, on which I have and ' m ot ' ner 



found similar globules. I had before remarked them in Ca96S ' 



the mixtures I had made for the purpose of producing the 



alkaline metals with charcoal. 



IV. 



Abstract of a Paper on the Decomposition and Properties of 

 the Fluoric Acid, presented the 9th of January to the Ma" 

 thematical Class of the Institute, by Messrs. Gay-Lussac 

 and Thenard*. 



.ESSRS. Gay-Lussac and Thenard, having decom- Potassium ap- 

 posed the boracic acid by means of the metal of potashf, P lied to the 

 could not but try the same method of decomposing the f ^S^Sl 

 fluoric and muriatic acids, the constituent principles of 

 which were not yet known. This they have effected with 

 respect to the fluoric acid, and they now make public the 

 principal results of their labours. 



* Journal de Physique, January 1809, p. 95. For Mr. Davy's expe- 

 riments on the decomposition of fluoric acid, see p. 20, of our present 

 number. 



t Set Journal, Vol. XXIII, p. 260, 



Our 



