202 Electrochemical Researches on 



When exposed to air, it rapidly tarnished, and fell into 'a 

 white powder, which was barytes. When this process was 

 conducted in a small portion of air, the oxygen was found 

 absorbed, and the nitrogen unaltered; when a portion of it 

 was introduced into water, it acted upon it with great vio- 

 lence and sunk to the bottom, producing jn it barytes ; and 

 hydrogen was generated. The quantities in which I obtained 

 it were too minute for me to be able to examine correctly, 

 either its physical or chemical properties. It sunk rapidly in 

 water, and even in sulphuric acid, though surrounded by 

 globules of hydrogen, equal to two or three times its volume; 

 from which it seems probable, that it cannot be less than 

 four or five times as heavy as water. It flattened by pres- 

 sure, but required a considerable force for this effect. 



The metal from strontites sunk in sulphuric acid, and ex- 

 hibited the same characters as that from barytes, except in 

 producing strontites by oxidation. 



The metal from lime, I have never been able to examine 

 exposed to air or under naphtha. In the case in which I was 

 able to distil the quicksilver from it to the greatest extent, 

 the tube unfortunately broke, whilst warm ; and at the mo- 

 ment that the air entered, the metal, which had the colour 

 and lustre of silver, instantly took fire, and burnt with an 

 intense white light into quicklime. 



The metal from magnesia seemed to act upon the glass, 

 even before the whole of the quicksilver was distilled from 

 it. In an experiment in which I stopped the process before 

 the mercury was entirely driven off, it appeared as a solid, 



ermine the products ; and till this is done, no ultimate conclusion can be 

 drawn. 



The action of potassium upon muriatic acid gas, indicates a much larger 

 quantity of water in this substance, than the action of electricity in Dr. 

 henry's elaborate experiments; but in the one instance the acid enters into a 

 solid salt, and in the other it remains aeriform ; and the difficulty of decompo- 

 sition by electricity, must increase in proportion as the quantity of water dimi- 

 nishes, so that at the apparent maximum of electrical effect, there is no reason 

 to suppose the gas free from water. 



Those persons who have supposed hydrogen to be the basis of muriatic 

 acid may, perhaps, give another solution of the- phenomena, and consider 

 {be experiment I ha^e detailed as a pr»of of this opinion. 



havfng 



