7^ Sir H. Davy on a new Substance 
extensive field for enquiry, and will probably occupy the at- 
tention of many persons, and as the investigation of it is not 
pursued by the discoverer himself, nor particularly by the 
gentlemen to whom it was first communicated, I shall not 
hesitate to lay before the Royal Society an account of the in- 
vestigations I have made upon it ; and I do this with the less 
scruple, as my particular manner of viewing the phenomena 
has led me to some new results, which probably will not be 
considered by the Society as without interest in their relation 
to the general theory of chemistry, and in their possible ap- 
plication to some of the useful arts. 
The first experiments that I made on this substance, were . 
to ascertain whether (argentane) muriate of silver could be 
formed from its solution in water or alcohol, and for this pur- 
pose it was purified by distilling it from lime. Its solution I 
found, when mixed with solution of nitrate of silver, deposited 
a dense precipitate of a pale lemon colour ; this precipitate 
v/hen collected and examined, proved to be fusible at a low 
red heat, and then became of a red colour. When acted upon 
by fused hydrate of potassa, it was rapidly decomposed, and 
a solid substance, having all the characters of oxide of silver, 
was formed. The matter soluble in water separated by a 
filter, and, acted upon by sulphuric acid, afforded the peculiar 
substance. 
A solution of potassa, after being boiled on the precipitate, 
afforded the peculiar substance, w’hen treated by the same 
acid. 
The precipitate was much more rapidly altered by exposure 
to light, than the muriate of silver, and was evidently quite a 
distinct body. 
