£34 



iTAttrRE OF OXIMURIATie ACW, 



Mr. Davy's 



Mr. Murray's 

 opinion 

 agreeable to 

 that of Ber- 

 thollet, Gay- 

 Lussac, and 

 .Xheaard. 



will still, 1 believe, hold just MfritTi regard to the other, not 

 would there be any difficulty in showing the imperfection* 

 of Mr. J. Davy's experiment. 



The question with regard to the general merits of the sob- 

 ph'-'nomena " J^^*' ^ ^^oDceive now to beat rest. Mr. Davy's opinion, which 

 hypothetical was first held out as a genuine theory, admitting^ of no doubt 

 unpruved. ^^ being a sioriple expression of facts, has been &hown to be a 

 hypothetical explanation bf phenomena. And as an hypo- 

 thesis not a single proof has been given of its truth, or no 

 fact has been brought forward^ exclusively explained by it, 

 or explained with more probability than by the opposite hy- 

 pothesis. It requires in its adaptation to the phenomena 

 more multiplied and complicaved assumptions, and it is at 

 variance with the most strict and extensive analogies. 



1 am pleased to find my opinion on this point sanctioned 

 by that of Berthollet, and of Gay-Lussac and Thenard. 

 That by the latter chemists is of too great a length to per- 

 permit me to introduce the quotation. I therefore refer to 

 their memoir*. Berthollei, in a report on their researches, 

 has given a raoie condensed view, equally clear and candid, 

 his opinion cannot be received without interest by chemists, 

 and you may therefore perhaps find room for the insertion 

 of it. After remarking, that Gay-Lussac and Thenard had 

 concluded, from their experiments, that oximuriatic acid 

 gas may be a, simple substance, and that all the pheno- 

 mena it exhibits may be explained on that hypothesis, 

 but that they had preferred the common hypothesis, as ex- 

 plaining them still better, a preference they continue to 

 give notwithstanding the other idea has been adopted by 

 Mr. Davy; Berthollet adds, 



" In fact, to considei^ the oxigenized muriutic gas as a 

 simple substance, we must suppose, that common muriatic 

 acid is a compound of hidrogen and oxigenized muriatic, 

 acid; and that the metallic muriates are of a nature en- 

 tirely dliFerent not only from other metallic salts, from 

 these very muriates themselves dissolved in water. We 

 must suppose, that lime and magnesia give out oxigen, the 

 existence of which in them is supported by certain experi- 

 ments, according to another hypothesis, to combine in the 



Berthollet'6 

 remarks oh 

 Mr Davy's 

 hypotiiesW j 



« Kscherches Pliy?ico-chimiqw8-,T 2d, f. 165. 



metallic 



