258 Dr. Beck on the Chlorides of Soda, Lime, fyc, 



ed but little changed by the operation, having the same pe- 

 culiar taste, and nearly the same bleaching power as before/'' 

 From this he infers, that the chlorine is not in the ordinary 

 state of solution, either in water or in a saline fluid ; " for 

 ebullition will freely carry off the chlorine under the latter 

 circumstances. 1 '* 



Two circumstances are worthy of notice in this experi- 

 ment, viz. 1st. that no chlorine was given off during ebulli- 

 tion ; — and 2d. that after the operation the solution retained 

 bleaching powers. 



The first of these may be accounted for by a fact stated 

 in a subsequent part of Mr. Faraday's paper, which is, that 

 by boiling this liquid a part of the chlorine acts upon the al- 

 kali, to form chloride and chlorate. We should therefore 

 expect the disengagement of carbonic acid rather than of 

 chlorine ; but the evolution of chlorine or carbonic acid, or 

 both, depends upon the time the boiling is continued.! 



To ascertain whether the second was peculiar to Labarra- 

 que's liquid, I took portions of the solutions of sulphate of 

 soda and sub sulphate of alumine and potash, charged with 

 chlorine as before mentioned, and subjected them to heat in 

 glass vessels. After having been heated for five, and boiled 

 for three minutes, portions were taken out and tested with 

 indigo, and they were found still to bleach, although not so 

 powerfully as before. Even after five minutes rapid boiling, 

 they still had an effect upon the above test. — In each of 

 these cases, however, chlorine was given off during the ebul- 

 lition ; a fact arising as I conceive, not from any difference 

 in the state of the chlorine, but in the nature of the salts held 

 in solution. 



I am not prepared at present to offer a satisfactory expla- 

 nation of these phenomena; but it would appear from these 

 and other experiments of a similar nature, that any saline 

 substance held in solution by water, either by increasing its 

 density or otherwise, tends to prevent or retard the eseape of 

 chlorine in a gaseous state. For it is freely admitted that 

 ebullition will completely disengage the chlorine held in so- 

 lution by pure water. It would be an interesting subject of 



* Faraday's paper as before referred to. 



| When this liquid is boiled for a length of time, I am satisfied that chlorine 

 is given off and that it loses much of its bleaching, power, although it may be 

 boiled so as not to evolve chlorine. 



