316 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 



tion, nor capable of existing as a separate binary compound. 

 The insulated binary compound of the radical of muriatic acid 

 with oxygen is oxymuriatic acid, as the binary compound of 

 sulphur and oxygen is sulphurous acid, and of nitrogen and 

 oxygen, nitrous and nitric oxides. 



Iodine, the discovery of which and its relations, has for a 

 time given predominance to the new doctrine of chlorine, con- 

 forms sufficiently to these views. Some have considered it as 

 a body belonging to the same class as chlorine ; others regard 

 it as more analogous to sulphur. It has little analogy to 

 either, except in the property of forming acids with oxygen 

 and with hydrogen. It differs remarkably from chlorine in its 

 comparative inertness, its solidity, specific gravity, and great 

 weight of its equivalent quantity. And it differs from sulphur 

 in its want of inflammability, its solubility in water, and its be- 

 ing attracted to the positive pole of the voltaic series. All 

 these analogies are preserved, and its relations connected, by 

 considering it as an oxide, which, both from its specific gravity, 

 the colour of its compounds, and the great weight of its equi- 

 valent quantity, has probably a metallic base ; and which ac- 

 quires acidity by an addition of hydrogen on the one hand, 

 and on the other by the addition of oxygen, or of oxygen and 

 hydrogen. In these respects, and in many of its chemical pro- 

 perties and relations, a considerable analogy exists between it 

 and oxide of arsenic or oxide of tellurium. Or if it were to be 

 classed as a simple substance, (on the ground of its not having 

 been decomposed,) — which forms an acid with hydrogen, 

 and another with oxygen and hydrogen ; it does not in these 

 respects offer any deviation compared with other acidifiable 

 bases, or afford an argument of much weight in support of the 

 undecomposed nature of chlorine. 



The 



