320 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 



bodies by which their formation is determined, and, being mo- 

 dified by any process causing their evolution, are not easily ob- 

 served. It is doubtful if the same base in any case forms dif- 

 ferent acids by combination with oxygen in different propor- 

 tions, or by combination with hydrogen in different propor- 

 tions. But the example of the vegetable acids seems to shew 

 that this may occur in the united action of oxygen and hydro- 

 gen ; carbon acidified by different proportions of these ele- 

 ments, constituting the composition of these acids. Other ba- 

 ses may present similar results. The radical of muriatic acid 

 may unite with other proportions of oxygen and hydrogen than 

 those which form muriatic acid; and this might afford a solu- 

 tion of the theoretical difficulty of the production of water in 

 the experiments in the first part of this memoir, independent 

 of the explanation of it from the formation of a super-muriate. 

 A compound may be formed with less oxygen and hydrogen 

 than what exist in muriatic acid, in combination with the me- 

 tal acted on, and thus a portion of water may be liberated. 

 Nor will it be easy to establish this by any difference in the 

 product, as it can scarcely be submitted to any examination, 

 but by processes which change the result. The chloric acid 

 which, according to Gay Lussac, cannot exist insulated with- 

 out water, may be in like manner a ternary compound of these 

 elements in other proportions. Prosecuting the same analogy, 

 the glacial or fuming oil of vitriol may be, not what has lately 

 been asserted, real sulphuric acid, (for probably no such sub- 

 stance as that to which this term has been applied, can be ob- 

 tained insulated), but a compound of sulphur with oxygen and 

 hydrogen, in proportions different from those which constitute 

 common oil of vitriol. Nitrous acid, if it cannot be formed 

 without water, may be a compound of nitrogen with a smaller 



proportion 



