SULPHUR AND PHOSPHORUS. 359 



peratureSj is a combination,of phosphorous acid and the aque- 

 ous vapour in the air, and is not, I find, perceived in air artifi- 

 cially dried. 



In this case, the phosphorus becomes covered with a white 

 film, which appears to be pure phosphorous acid, and it soon 

 ceases to shine. 



A solid acid volatile, at a moderate degree of heat, may be , 



produced by burning phosphorus in very rare air, and this 

 seems to be phosphorous acid firee from water > but some phos- 

 phoric acid, and some yellow oxide of phosphorus, are always 

 formed at the same time. 



The peculiar gas differs exceedingly from phosphoretted hy- Nature of the 

 drogen formed by the action of earths and alkalies and phos- P^*^"'*^'" g**> 

 phorus upon water ; for this last gas is spontaneously inflam- 

 mable, and its specific gravity is seldom more than half as 

 great, and it does not afford more than 15 its volume of 

 hydrogen when decomposed by potassium ; it differs in its 

 qualities in different cases, and probably consists of different 

 mixtures of hydrogen with a peculiar gas, consisting of 2 

 parts of hydrogen and 20 of phosphorusj or it must contain 

 several proportions of hydrogen to one of phosphorus. 



I venture to propose the name hydrophosphoric gas for the denominated 

 new gas j and according to the principles of nomenclature, I hydrophos- 

 have proposed in the last Bakerian lecture, the liquor con- 

 taining 20 of phosphorus to 67 of chlorine may be called phos- 

 phorane, and the sublimate phosphorana. 



3. Of some Comlinations of Sulphur, 



I have shewn, in a paper published in the Philosophical Sulphuretted 

 Transactions for 1810, that sulphuretted hydrogen is formed Jjj''°y^^J,j_ 

 by tlie solution of sulphur in hydrogen, and I have supposed reous acid, 

 that sulphureous acid, in like manner, is constituted by a 

 solution of sulphur in oxygen. There is always a little con- 

 densation of volume in experiments on the combustion of sul- 

 phur in oxygen j but this may fairly be attributed to some 

 hydrogen loosely combined in the sulphur j and to the pro- 

 duction of a little sulphuric acid by the mutual action of hydro- 

 gen, oxygen, and sulphur. 



It is only necessary, if these data be allowed, to know the 

 diflfcrence between the specific gravity of sulphureous acid ^as 



«nd 



