[ 343 I 



PART II. 



(Read Jan. 19. 1818. ) 



EXPERIMENTS MADE WITH THE VIEW OP DETERMINING THE RELA- 

 TION BETWEEN MURIATIC ACID AND CHLORINE. 



To the inferences which I have ventured to draw, from the 

 experimental results detailed in the preceding part of this pa- 

 per, two objections may be offered. 



First, That the aqueous product obtained in the decomposi- 

 tion of dry sal ammoniac, by ignited metallic laminae, may pos- 

 sibly be derived from the azote of the ammonia, supposing azote 

 not to be a distinct elementary substance, but a peculiar oxide 

 of hydrogen. This notion occurred to me at an early period, 

 in consequence of the anomalous, and unaccountable disap- 

 pearance, of a portion of ammonia, and the concomitant pro- 

 duction of water, as described in my experimental researches 

 on the ammoniacal salts. To determine how far this view was 

 correct in the present instance, I made the following experi- 

 ment : Into a tube of green glass, sealed at one end, I put 

 30 gr. of desiccated sal ammoniac. Over it 200 gr. of pure 

 iron turnings were placed, which occupied 5 inches of the . 

 tube. The open end of this was connected by a collar of 

 caoutchouc, with a narrow tube of crystal glass, having a small 



sphere 



