2i8 Mr. E. Howard on a new fulminating Mercury. 



water; after which, I dried it, and found it weighed only 84 grains; 

 consequently had lost 16 grains of its original weight. Suspect- 

 ing, from the operation of the nitric acid in the former experi- 

 ment, that these 84 grains (with the exception of the quicksilver 

 globules) were oxalate of mercury, I digested them in nitrate of 

 lime, and found my suspicion just. The mercury of the oxalate 

 united to the nitric acid, and the oxalic acid to the lime. A new 

 insoluble compound was formed ; it weighed, when washed and 

 dry, 48,5 grains. Carbonate of potash separated the lime, and 

 formed oxalate of potash, capable of precipitating lime-water, 

 and muriate of lime ; although it had been depurated from 

 excess of alkali, and from carbonic acid, by a previous addition 

 of acetous acid. That the mercury of the oxalate in the 84 

 grains, had united to the nitric acid of the nitrate of lime, was 

 proved by dropping muriatic acid into the liquor from which 

 the substance demonstrated to be oxalate of lime had been sepa- 

 rated ; for a copious precipitation of calomel instantly ensued. 



The sulphuric liquor, decanted from the oxalate of mercury, 

 was now added to that with which it was edulcorated, and the 

 whole saturated with carbonate of potash. As effervescence 

 ceased, a cloudiness and precipitation followed ; and the preci- 

 pitate, being collected, washed, and dried, weighed 3,4 grains : 

 it appeared to be a carbonate of mercury. Upon evaporating a 

 portion of the saturated sulphuric liquor, I found nothing but 

 sulphate of potash ; nor had it any metallic taste. There then 

 remains, without allowing for the weight of the carbonic acid 

 united to the 3,4 grains, a deficit from the 100 grains of mercurial 

 powder, of 1 2,6 grains, which I ascribe to the gas separated by 

 the action of the sulphuric acid. To ascertain the quantity, and 

 examine the nature, of the gas so separated, I introduced into a 



