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



allowance for the weight of carbonic acid in the 3,4 grains, I will 

 make that deduction, and add the remaining 2 grains to the 84 

 grains of mercurial oxalate and quicksilver ; I shall then have, 



of oxalate and mercury - - - 86 grains 



and a deficit, to be ascribed to the nitrous 

 etherized gas and excess of oxygen - - 14, 



100 



It may perhaps be proper to proceed still further, and recur 

 to the 48,5 grains, separated by nitrate of lime from the 84 

 grains of mercurial oxalate and globules of quicksilver, in the 

 11th section. These 48,5 grains were proved to be chiefly oxa- 

 late of lime ; but they likewise contained a minute inseparable 

 quantity of mercury, almost in the state of quicksilver, formerly 

 part of the 84 grains from which they were separated. FJad the 

 48,5 grains been pure calcareous oxalate, the quantity of pure 

 oxalic acid in them would, according to Bergmann,* be 23,28 

 grains. Hence, by omitting the 2 grains of mercury in the 3,4 

 grains of carbonate, 100 grains of the mercurial powder might 

 have been said to contain, of pure oxalic acid 23,28 grains ; of 

 mercury 62,72 grains ; and of nitrous etherized gas and excess 

 of oxygen 14 grains. But, as the 48,5 grains were not pure oxa- 

 late, inasmuch as they contained the mercury they received from 

 the 84 grains, from which they were generated by the nitrate 

 of lime, some allowance must be made for the mercury succes- 

 sively intermixed with the 84 grains and the 48,5 grains. 



In order to make corresponding numbers, and allow for 

 unavoidable errors, I shall estimate the quantity of that mercury 

 to have amounted to 2 grains, which I must of course deduct 



* Bergmann, de Acido Saccbari. Opuscula. Tom. I. § 6. p. 248. Leipzig, 1788. 



