C 20 4 J 





XI. On a new fulminating Mercury. By Edward Howard, Esq. 



F. R. S. 



Read March 13, 1800. 



SECTION I. 



1 he mercurial preparations which fulminate, when mixed with 

 sulphur, and gradually exposed to a gentle heat, are well known 

 to chemists : they were discovered, and have been fully de- 

 scribed, by Mr. Bayen.* 



MM. Brugnatelli and Van Mons have likewise produced 

 Eliminations by concussion, as well with nitrate of mercury and 

 phosphorus, as with phosphorus and most other nitrates.-f- 

 Cinnabar likewise is amongst the substances which, according 

 to MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin, detonate by concussion 

 with oxymuriate of potash. J 



Mr. Ameilon had, according to Mr. Berthollet, observed, 

 that the precipitate obtained from nitrate of mercury by oxalic 

 acid, fuses with a hissing noise. § 



* Opuscules Chimique de Bayen, Tom. I. p. 346, and note in p. 344. 



f Annales de Chimie, Tom. XXVII. p. 74 and "jg. 



% Ibid. Tom. XXI. p. 238. 



$ This fact has been misrepresented, in the introduction to a work intitled The 

 chemical Principles of the metallic Arts, by W. Richardson, surgeon, F. A. S. Sc. 

 (page lvii.) The author, speaking of the acid of sorrel, says, " Klaproth of Berlin 

 " precipitated a nitrous solution of mercury with acid of wood-sorrel, neutralized with 



