n 



COMBINATIONS OF OXIMURIATIC ACID AND METAI.S. 



Another mode 

 af obu'uiingit. 



Ptonst's -white 

 Rjuriaie of 

 copper. 



Fr?>perties 

 of this. 

 (COJapuund. 



Si^ compound. 

 How procured. 



sin. Two parts of corrosive sublimate, and one part of 

 copper filings, 1 have found the best proportions of the ma-, 

 tertals. 



It may be obtained by boiling copper fiUn^^s in muriatic 

 acid, ar by exposing- slips of copper partially immersed in 

 this acid to the atmosphere. In the last instance, I have 

 found the chanjjes connected with the formation of cuprane 

 lather complicated ; the copper exposed receives oxigen from 

 the atmosphere, and acid from the ascending muriatic acid 

 fumes, and is thus converted into a green insoluble salt, and 

 this, absorbing more muriatic acid, slowly passes into the 

 deliquescent muriate, which flowing into themuriatic acid is 

 changed by the action of the immersed copper into cuprane. 



Mr. Proust, the first modern chemist who examined cu- 

 prane, and who is commonly considered as the first discoverer 

 of this compound, found it produced by the action of muriate 

 of tin on muriate of copper; he named it white muriate of 

 copper, and ascertained that a similar substance results frora 

 the decomposition of the common deliquescent muriate by 

 lieat. 



Cuprane, by whatever means prepared, possesses the same 

 properties. It is fusible at a heat just below that of redness; 

 and in a close vessel, or a vessel with a very small oritice, it- 

 is not decomposed or sublimed by a strong red heat ; but if 

 air, on the contrary, is freely admitted, it is dissipated in 

 dense white fumes. It is insoluble in water. It effervesces 

 in nitric acid. It silently dissolves in muriatic acid» from 

 which it may be separated by the addition of water, which 

 precipitates it unaltered ; and it is decomposed by a solution 

 of potash ; or by heating it with the fused hydrated alkali : 

 when it affords the orange oxide of copper. Its colour, 

 transparency, and texture appear alone to vary. It is gene- 

 FaUy opaque, of a dark brown colour, and of a confused 

 hackly texture ; but I have obtained it by cooling it slowly 

 ^fter it has been strongly heated, of a light yellow colour, 

 seniitransparent, and crystallized, apparently in small 

 plates^ 



Cupranea is only very slowly formed by heating cuprane 

 in chlorine gas. The best mode, that I have found, of pro- 

 curing it, is by slowly evaporating to dryness, at a tempera-i 



ture 



