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VI OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 



base, and subsequent exposure to heat, the composition is sub- 

 verted by the affinities exerted ; the hydrogen unites with the 

 requisite proportion of oxygen, forming water, and the remain- 

 ing oxygen with the sulphur unite with the base. In the ac- 

 tion of a metal on the acid, there is the same result ; only by 

 the attraction of the metal to oxygen, the whole of that ele- 

 ment is retained, and the hydrogen is disengaged. 



Muriatic acid gas, then, according to this doctrine, is the 

 real acid, a ternary compound of a radical (at present un- 

 known) with oxygen and hydrogen, exactly as sulphuric acid in 

 its highest state of concentration, is the real acid, a ternary 

 compound of sulphur, oxygen, and hydrogen. When it is sub- 

 mitted to an alkaline base, the action exerted causes its decom- 

 position ; its hydrogen, and part of its oxygen, combine to form 

 water, and its radical, with its remaining oxygen, unite with 

 the base, forming a neutral compound, analogous to what 

 other acids of similar constitution form. When a similar re- 

 sult is obtained from the action of a metal, its whole oxy- 

 gen must be considered as retained, and its hydrogen is libe- 

 rated. 



Nitric acid in its highest state of concentration, is not a de- 

 finite compound of real acid with about a fourth of its weight 

 of water ; but a ternary compound of nitrogen, oxygen, and 

 hydrogen. Phosphoric acid is a triple Compound of phospho- 

 rus, oxygen, and hydrogen ; and phosphorous acid is the proper 

 binary compound of phosphorus and oxygen. The oxalic, tar- 

 taric, and other vegetable acids, are admitted to be ternary 

 compounds of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and are there- 

 fore in strict conformity to the doctrine now illustrated. 



A relation of the elements of bodies to acidity is thus dis- 

 covered, different from what has hitherto been proposed. 

 When a series of compounds exists, which have certain com- 

 mon 



