20 COMBINATIONS OF OXALIC ACID. 



pur*' State, without giving it any unpleasant smell, or mate- 

 rially impairing the brilliancy of its flatne. A mixture of 

 three parts of the vegetable wax, with one part of bees wax, 

 also taakes very excellent candles. 



VI. 



Observatiuns on the Alkaline Oxalates and Superoxalates, and 

 particularly on the Proportions of their Elements : by JJ^r* 

 J. E. Berabd*. .; 



t)r. Thomson JLifR. Thomson has just published in the Philosophical 



on oxalic acid 

 and the 



Transactionsf a very interesting paper on oxalic acid. 

 oxalates. One part of it is dedicated to the determination of the pro- 



portions of the oxalates, and for this he has taken the fol- 

 lowing method. 



After having carefully ascertained the proportions in oxa- 

 late of lime, by combining a known quantity of lime with 

 oxalic acid, he could find the quantity of real acid contain- 

 ed in a given weightof a solution of oxalic acid. 



He then took 100 grains of a solution of oxalic acid, con- 

 taining 7 grains of real acid ; and, neutralizing it succes- 

 sively by the different alkalis, he ascertained the quantity 

 of oxalate produced. 

 He did not But it is well known, that this acid has the property of 



exarame the forming with some bases salts with excess of acid : and, as 

 the method of Dr. Thomson could not make known their 

 proportions, he did not examine these. In the next place, 

 and some of I observed in his table some proportions, which could not 

 «Joubted. agree with the capacities of the alkalis for saturation hitherto 



observed. 



Tke subject These considerations induced me, to repeat the analyses 



therefore of the oxalates, and to examine particularly the suneroxa- 



lates. I also took a method different from Dr. Thomson's, 



when it was necessary and practicable: because, if I ob- 



, tained the same results in another mode, this would increase 



our confidence in them. 



* Ann. deCkim. toI. LXXIII, p. 263. Read to the Institute, Jan. 

 the 5J9th, 1810. 



t Phil. Trans. 1808, p, G8: or Journ vol. XXI, p. j4t, 86. 



Oxalate 



