310 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 



There are, I believe, only two arguments to which an} 

 weight is due in support of the opinion that chlorine is a 

 simple substance, which by combination with hydrogen forms 

 muriatic acid. One is drawn from the analogy resting on the 

 general fact, sufficiently established, that acidity is in different 

 ca^es the result of the agency of hydrogen ; the other, from the 

 analogy in the chemical relations of chlorine and iodine. 



Sulphur forms with hydrogen a compound unequivocally 

 acid. The compound radical of prussic acid Cyanogen, disco- 

 vered by the able researches of Gay Lussac, likewise acquires 

 acidity when it receives hydrogen. Acidity, therefore, is a 

 property not exclusively connected with oxygen ; it is also 

 communicated by hydrogen ; and when chlorine with hydro- 

 gen gas, forms muriatic acid gas, the agency exerted may be 

 considered as similar to that arising in other cases, of the pro- 

 duction of an acid from the action of hydrogen. 



This is confirmed by the relations of iodine. It, too, forms 

 an acid by combination with hydrogen ; and the chemical 

 agencies of iodine are in several other respects similar to those 

 of chlorine. When the one, therefore, is considered as a 

 simple body, (and there is no absolute proof that iodine is a 

 compound,) the other is, with probability, placed in the same 

 class. And certain analogies existing between sulphur and io- 

 dine, serve to connect and confirm these views. Each of them 

 forms an acid with hydrogen ; each of them also forms an acid 

 with oxygen. But chlorine exhibits precisely the same points 

 of resemblance : with hydrogen, it forms muriatic acid ; 

 with oxygen, it forms chloric acid. Its chemical relations, with 

 regard to acidity, being thus similar, seem to require the same 

 explanation to account for them. 



These facts lead undoubtedly to views of chemical theory, 

 different from those which had before been established j and on 



which 



