'68 Sir H. Davy's Account oj some new Experiments 
I heated a portion of a similar result in strong lixivium of 
potassa ; the solution gained a tint of olive, but there was 
scarcely any effervescence ; from this it seems probable, that 
the inflammable basis of silica, like boron, is soluble in alkaline 
solutions without decomposing them. 
Indeed this body, in its general characters, appears very 
analogous to boron. It appears to be neither volatile nor 
fusible ; its oxide exerts, like boracicacid,a neutralizing power 
on the alkalies, though of a feebler kind, and forms, like 
boracic acid, vitreous bodies with the alkaline earths, and, like 
boron, the siliceous basis in combination with fluorine consti- 
tutes a powerful acid. 
- In, my first views of the nature of the boracic and siliceous 
bases, I thought it probable that they would both appear as 
metals, if they could be entirely freed from oxygen ; but it 
now seems more probable, that they form a class by them- 
selves, offering a kind of link in the chain of natural bodies, 
w’hen arranged according to their analogies, between char- 
coal, and sulphur and phosphorus. 
. It seems worthy of an experimental inquiry, whether the 
siliceous basis may not be obtained pure by heating the result 
procured from silica by potassium with pure sulphuric acid, 
which might possibly detach the potassa to form acid sulphate 
of potassa, without being decomposed by the inflammable 
basis. 
I have made many new experiments with the hope of de- 
composing chlorine, but they have been all unavailing ; nor 
have I been able to gain the slightest evidence of the existence 
of that oxygen which many persons still assert to be one of 
its elements. 
