ON THE NATURE OF CERTAIN BODIES. 103- 



by cooling the mixture out of the contact of nitrogen, 1 

 found that no ammonia was formed ; and this substance 

 evidently owed its existence to the absorption of atmosphe- 

 rical air by the charcoal *. 



The experiments that I have detailed on the acids offer New viswsof 



some new views with respect to the nature of acidity. That the nature of 



, acidity. 



a compound of muriatic acid with oxide of tin or phosphorus 



should not redden vegetable blues, might be ascribed to a 

 species of neutralization by the oxide or inflammable body; 

 but the same reasoning will not apply to the dry com- 

 pounds, which contain acid matter only, and which are pre- 

 cisely similar as to this quality. Let a piece of dry and 

 warm litmus paper be moistened with the compound of mu- 

 riatic and phosphorous acid, it perfectly retains its colour. 

 Let it then be placed upon a piece of moistened litmus 

 paper, it instantly becomes of a bright red, heats, and deve- 

 lopes muriatic acid gas. 



All the fluid acids that contain water are excellent con- Fluid acids 

 ductors of electricity, in the class called that of imperfect ter ^'conduc* 

 conductors; but the compounds to which I have just al- tors of electn- 

 lnded are nonconductors in the same degree as oils, with C1 /' 

 which they are perfectly miscible. W hen I first, examined 

 muriatic acid, in its combinations free from moisture, I had 

 great hopes of decomposing them by electricity; but there 

 was no action without contact of the wires, and the spark 

 seemed to separate no one of their constituents, but only to 

 render them gaseous. The circumstance likewise applies 



* Potash or pearlash is easily decomposed by the combined attractions Potash decom- 



of charcoal and iron; but it is not decomposable by charcoal, or, when posed by the 



perfectly dry, by iron alone. Two combustible bodLs seem to be required com ,r 5 a1 

 J - J ' J n mtses of iwo 



by their combined affinities for the effect; thus in the experiment with combustibles. 



the gun barrel, iron and hidrogen are concerned. I consider Homberg's 



pyrophorus- as a triple compound of potassium, sulphur, and charcoal ; 



and in this ancient process, the potash is probably decomposed by two 



affinities. The substance is perfectly imitated by heating together ten 



parts of charcoal, two of potassium, and one cf sulphur. 



When I first showed the production of potassium to Dr. Wollaston in 



October 1807, he stated, that this new fact induced him to conceive, that 



the action of potash upon platina was owing to the formation of po- i 



tassium, and proposed it as a matter of research, whether the alkali might 



not be decomposed by the joint action of platina and charcoal. 



t# 



