KF.W ACID GAS. gj 



I have found, that it is produced in two or three minute* Itsproduc- 

 wheii a mixture of equal volumes of carbonic oxide and ox- ^'*^'^' 

 inauriatic gas is exposed in a tube over dry mercury to 

 bright sunshine; and that the condensation, that takes 

 place in their. union, is exactly equal to one volume, so that 

 this is the heaviest gas known excepting silicated fluoric 

 acid gas. I have also ascertained, that it may be at any 

 time formed without the direct rays of the sun — Light 

 alone being necessary. Its acid character is well defined. Its char Actere 

 It reddens litmus and combines with ammonia; and its 

 saturating power is so great, that it condenses four times 

 its volume of this gas, forming a perfectly neutral salt, 

 deliquescent, and of course very soluble in water; and its 

 attraction for the dry volatile alkali is so strong, that it 

 decomposes carbonate of ammonia, and is not expelled by 

 acetic acid from this alkali. The decomposition of this Decompo<;> 



ammoniacal salt with effervescence bv dilute nitric acid ^'°"*^^'^^*™~ 

 1 • I T»T -Kir 11T X ■ Ai ■ ■ • ■> moniacal salt. 



deceived Mr. Murray. Water m this instance is decom- 

 posed, its hidrogen is abstracted by the oximuriatic acid to 

 form muriatic acid, and its oxigen by the carbonic oxide 

 to produce carbonic acid, which is disengaged. This will Oiherpmper^ 

 appear evident, when it i? known, that the new gas neither t'^iof st. 

 inflames on the passage of the electric spark with either 

 oxigen or hidrogen alone, but that it detonates violently 

 with a mixture of oxigen and hidrogen in proper propor- 

 tions, and affords only muriatic and carbonic acid gas. The Action of me- 

 action too of several metals and their oxides on this gas is ^^^^ °" '^' 

 perfectly consistent with, indeed is quite demonstrative of 

 its being a compound of equal volumes of carbonic oxide 

 and oximuriatic gas, so condensed as to occupy half the 

 space of the mixture of the two. Thus tin, zinc, and an- 

 timony, respectively heated in it in small bent glass tubes 

 over mercury rapidly decompose it. In each instance car- 

 bonic oxide, exactly equal to the volume of the gas decom- 

 posed, is liberated, and a compound of the metal employed 

 and oxiinuriatic gas is produced, the same precisely as is 

 formed by the combustion of the metal in oximuriatic gas. 

 ^The decomposition too is just as readily effected by the 

 oxides of zinc and antimony; with the first carbonic acid 

 gas is obtained, and a compound of zinc and oximuriatic 



gas; 



