120 Mr. Chenevix's Observations and Experiments 
and hyperoxygenized muriatic acid, as announced in the title of 
the present communication; and that, in either state, it is 
capable of entering into saline combinations. 
With this view, I shall describe, 
ist. The means by which I think I have succeeded, in ascer- 
taining the constituent parts, as well as the proportions, in 
oxygenized and hyperoxygenized muriatic acid. 
sdly. I shall mention some of the combinations of the muriatic 
acid, in its three states. 
In treating upon the first of these objects, I must in some 
measure anticipate the second ; and must suppose some things 
known, which are hereafter to be described. This inconve- 
nience is inevitable ; as the natural order of things leads me to 
treat of the acid, before I consider the bodies into the compo- 
sition of which it enters. 
I exposed to the heat of a lamp, 100 grains of hyperoxyge- 
nized muriate of potash. It decrepitated gently, and in a short 
time melted. After remaining in fusion nearly an hour, I al- 
lowed it to cool: it crystallized as formerly, and had lost 2,5 
per cent. I increased the heat to redness, in a furnace. The 
salt boiled with a violent effervescence, and rapid disengage- 
ment of gaseous fluid, together with a thin white vapour, and 
then sunk suddenly into a white spongy mass. The loss of 
weight usually varied from 42 to 48 or 50 per cent. 
I put 100 grains into a coated glass retort, luted to a small 
and perfectly dry receiver, having a tube communicating with a 
glass bell in the pneumatic tub. The fire had not been lighted 
very long, when a slight dew began to line the inside of the 
receiver; and, as soon as the retort was nearly red hot, a dis- 
engagement of gas, so sudden as almost to be explosive, took 
