216 Mr. E. Howard on a new fulminating Mercury. 



absorbed by it : and, as it soon extinguished a taper, without 

 becoming red, or being itself inflamed, barytes water was let up 

 to the three cubical inches received over mercury, when a car- 

 bonate of barytes was immediately precipitated. 



The residue of several explosions, after the carbonic acid 

 had been separated, was found, by the test of nitrous gas, to 

 contain nitrogen or azotic gas; which does not proceed from 

 any decomposition of atmospheric air, because the powder may 

 be made to explode under the exhausted receiver of an air- 

 pump. It is therefore manifest, that the gases generated during 

 the combustion of the fulminating mercury, consist of carbonic 

 acid and nitrogen gases. 



SECTION XI. 



The principal re-agents which decompose the mercurial 

 powder, are the nitric, the sulphuric, and the muriatic acids. 

 The nitric changes the whole into nitrous gas, carbonic acid 

 gas, acetous acid, and nitrate of mercury. I resolved it into 

 these different principles, by distilling it pneumatically with 

 nitric acid : this acid, upon the application of heat, soon dis- 

 solved the powder, and extricated a quantity of gas, which was 

 found, by well known tests, to be nitrous gas mixed with car- 

 bonic acid gas. The distillation was carried on until gas no 

 longer came over. The liquor of the retort was then mixed 

 with the liquor collected in the receiver, and the whole satu- 

 rated with potash ; which precipitated the mercury in a yellow- 

 ish-brown powder, nearly as it would have done from a solution 

 of nitrate of mercury. This precipitate was separated by a filter, 



