230 MATU*E OF OXIMURIATIC ACI». 



and that the effervescence was found by Mr. J. Davy to lot 

 owing to the disengagement of this new acid gas. Then 

 indeed, he would have had reason to say, I had been de-J 

 ceived j and grounds to form the expectation, that I should 

 renounce my conclusion, that carbonic acid had been 

 formed in my experiment; but in^ the succeeding sentence 

 I found, sufficiently to my surprise, the admission, that it 

 actually is carbonic acid, which is disengaged with effer* 

 vescence, that my conclusion therefore is correct, and esta* 

 blished by Mr. J. Davy's own experiments ; and all that 

 his labours amount to is, that by the aid of this ga? he can 

 frame an hypothesis, by which this production of carbonic 

 acid, hitherto so steadily denied by him, may now, that he 

 admits it, be accounted for in conformity to the opinion he 

 defends. 

 The first ques- M is obvfous, that the first question in the controversy is 



*'5^" '^]'^* ^^^^ with regard to the matter of iuct. Is carbonic acid formed 



or tre forma- . ^ . 



tionof carbo. in these experiments, or not? How it is formed is a difFer- 



nicacid, ^^^t question. 1 had uniformly maintained its production, 



or, that when carbonic oxide, oxi muriatic acid, and hidro- 



gen gasses are submitted to mutual action, the carbonic 



oxide disappears ; and, whether the product be examined 



by the medium of water, or of ammonia, carbonic acid is 



obtained. Mr. J. Davy denied this. But it now appearii 



which is from his own experiments, that my statement has been cor- 



proved by Mr. i , , • • i i 'v i i 



J.,Davy's own ^ect, that the carbonic oxide dues disappear, and that carbo- 



experiment. qJc acid is obtained. He therefore, I trust, will in future 



be more cautious in his assertions, and in calling in question 



the results of the experiments of others. . 



His hypothe- fhe hypothesis, which he proiwses to account for the facts 



SIS to explain . . . 



this. now admitted, is the following. The carbonic oxide he _ 



supposes to unite with thedoximoriatic acid, and form this 

 new acid gas ; it combines with the ammonia, and in the de- 

 composition of this amrooniacal salt with effervescence, 

 *' water is decomposed, its hidrogen is abstracted by the oxi- 

 ♦* muriatic acid to form muriatic acid, and its oxigen by the 

 **- carbonic oxide to produce carbonic acid, which is disen- 

 *^ gaged." 



. One would imagine from the manner in which the above 

 sentence is expressed, that these were facts which had been 



experimentally 



