COMPOUND OF CARBONIC OXIDE AND OXIMURIATIC GAS. £45 



But even this circumstance does not demonstrate, that the 

 gas has no affinity for lime, and is not capable of combining 

 with it; for on making a similar experiment with carbonic 

 acid, substituting this gas for the new compound, the result 

 was the same; in two days only about one tenth of a cubic 

 inch was absorbed. 



Though the gas is decomposed by water, yet it appears to j^ ot ,j ecom , 

 be absorbed unaltered by common spirit of wine, which con- posed by spirit 

 tains so considerable a quantity of water ; it imparted its pe- ° wme * 

 culiar odour to the spirit, and its property of affecting the 

 eyes; five measures of the spirit condensed sixty measures of 

 the gas. 



It is also absorbed by the fuming liquor of arsenic, and by Absorbed br 

 the oximuriateof sulphur. the fuming H- 



The former appeared to require for saturation ten times its and oxi muriate 

 own volume; six measures of the liquor condensed about of sulphur, 

 sixty of the gas. The liquor thus impregnated was thrown 

 into water, and a pretty appearance was produced by the 

 sudden escape of bubbles of the gas; had not its intolerable 

 smell convinced me that the gas was unaltered, I should w !f te e r un d^ S 

 not have conceived that it could pass through water un- composed. 

 decomposed. 



1 cannot account for the assertion of Messrs. Gay-Lussac D - ff * 



and Thenard and of Mr. Murray, that oximuriatic gas does the author's 

 not, when under the influence of light, exert any action on re * uUs Wlth 

 carbonic oxide: I was inclined at first to suppose, that the 

 difference between their results and mine might be owing to 

 their not having exposed the gasses together to blight sun- 

 shine; but 1 have been obliged to relinquish this idea, since 

 I have found that bright sunshine is not essential, and that 

 the combination is produced in less than twelye hours by the 

 indirect solar rays, light alone being necessary, 



The formation of the new gas may be very readily wit- The formatiaa 



nessed, by making a mixture of dry carbonic oxideand chlo- of the g as 



. , , -n !• i . i , ! i i shown, 



rine in a glass tube over mercury: it light be excluded, the 



chlorine will be absorbed by the mercury, the carbonic oxide 

 alone remaining ; but if bright sunshine be immediately ad- 

 mitted when the mixture is first made, a rapid ascension of 

 the mercury will take place, and in less than a minute the 

 colour of the chlorine will be destroyed, and in about ten 



minute* 



