322 OBSERVATIONS ON MURIATIC ACID, 



the most energetic chemical agent ; it enters into combination 

 in proportions strictly definite, is retained by the most power- 

 ful affinities ; communicates new and characteristic properties ; 

 and is essential even to the existence of these compounds, in 

 an insulated form, Berzelius and Gay Lussac have stated, 

 that it is to be considered as a base necessary to retain the ele- 

 ments of the acid combined, though without neutralising the 

 acid properties, — an opinion which in itself, and still more with 

 this condition, is certainly sufficiently incongruous. And both 

 theories admit equally of incongruity in the supposed presence 

 and energetic action of water in acids. The old doctrine ad- 

 mits its influence in sulphuric, nitric, phosphoric, and muriatic 

 acids, though at variance with its principle, that oxygen is the 

 element which confers acidity, or at least having no conformi- 

 ty to that principle, nor receiving explanation from it. The 

 new doctrine refuses to admit it with regard to muriatic acid, 

 but admits it in all the others, — an exception which serves only 

 to render the system more objectionable by the violation of 

 analogy ; while the admission with regard to the others is 

 equally incapable of being accounted for on any principle it af- 

 fords. By considering oxygen and hydrogen as elements 

 conferring acidity, a satisfactory solution is afforded of the ef- 

 fects produced in these cases by their joint operation ; and in- 

 dependent of this, it is much more probable, a priori, that such 

 effects should arise from the action of elements so powerful, 

 than from the agency of water, which, in its general relations, 

 exerts such feeble powers. Lastly, The principle on which the 

 presence of combined water in these acids has been supposed 

 to depend, - that of the strong attraction of the acid to water, 

 seems altogether fallacious ; for on this principle sulphurous 

 acid should also contain combined water, and sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen, and even carbonic acid, might be expected to retain a 



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