374 ^^ METALLIC PHOSPHURETS. 



b. When kindled by the flame of a candle, its burning is 

 attended m ith vapours of phosphorus, part of which is pre- 

 cipitated in a concrete form on the sides of the vessel con- 

 taining it. 



c. It inflames with detonation, when mingled with oxigen 

 gas. 



d. Nitrous gas occasions no alteration in it : but if oxigen 

 gas be added to a mixture of these two, a bright light appears, 

 which is followed by a violent and very dangerous detona- 

 tion. In the experiment I made on a fourth part of a cubic 

 inch of the inflammable gas, enclosed in a glass tube which 

 I had purposely selected for its thickness, the tube was 

 broken to pieces, and the fragments flew up to the cieling 

 of the room, where they made deep marks. 



e. If three measures of oximuriatic acid gas be introduced 

 in separate portions to one measure of this inflammable gas 

 in a tube over water, it will take fire at the introduction of 

 each portion, and burn with a very fine green light. The 

 mixture expands at the commencement, and afterward di- 

 minishes prodigiously. All this goes on quietly, and there 

 is no danger in the experiment, if we take care to use a 

 pretty long, tube. 



/. It is injurious to the germination of plants, as appears 

 from the following experiment. Having placed three parcels 

 of the seeds of water cresses (sisymbrium)^ moistened with 

 water, under three jars, one of which contained oxigen 

 gas, one atmospheric air, and the third this inflammable 

 gas, I left them thus four and twenty hours. I then found, 

 that the seeds in the first jar had begun to germinate, for 

 they were soft and viscous; those in the second jar were 

 less so; and those in the third not at all. The seeds were 

 sown separately at the same time in good mould, and the 

 celerity of their vegetation was in the same order. The 

 seeds that had been in oxigen gas came up in three days; 

 those that had been in atmospheric air, in four ; and those 

 that had been in the inflammable gas, not till the end of the 

 sixth. 

 Analysis of it. S' ^o find the nature of this gas, I introdpced fifty 

 measures of it, and a hundred of oxigen gas, into Volta's 

 eudiometer previously filled with limewater. After the in- 

 flammation 



