on the fluoric Compounds, 71 
by multiplying words all the phenomena might be satisfac- 
torily explained. Thus in the simple view of the formation 
of muriatic acid, it is said one volume of chlorine combines 
with one of hydrogen, and they form two volumes of muriatic 
acid gas. In the hypothesis of chlorine containing oxygen, 
it is said, the oxygen of the chlorine combines with the hy- 
drogen to form water, and this water unites to an unknown 
something, or dry muriatic acid, to produce a gaseous body. 
If it were asserted that chlorine contained azote, oxygen, and 
this unknown body, then it might be said, that, in the action 
of hydrogen on chlorine, the azote, the oxygen and the chlo- 
rine, having all attractions for hydrogen, enter into union with 
it, and form a quadruple compound. 
Professor Berzelius has lately adduced some arguments, 
which he conceives are in favour of chlorine being a compound 
of oxygen from the laws of definite proportions ; but I cannot 
regard these arguments of my learned and ingenious friend 
as possessing any weight. By transferring the definite pro- 
portions of oxygen to the metals, which he has given to chlo- 
rine, the explanation becomes a simple expression of facts; 
and there is no general canon with respect to the multiples 
of the proportions in which different bodies combine. Thus 
azote follows peculiar laws in combining with every different 
body; it combines with three volumes of hydrogen, with half 
a volume of oxygen, with 1.2 and of the same body, and 
with four volumes of chlorine. 
The chemists in the middle of the last century had an idea, 
that all inflammable bodies contained phlogiston or hydrogen. 
It was the glory of Lavoisier to lay the foundations for a 
sound logic in chemistry, by shewing that the existence of 
