upon oxygenized and hyper oxygenized muriatic Acid , See, 131 
pneumatic apparatus was ready to collect any gases that might 
be evolved. By these means, I obtained, in the second bottle, a 
solution of whatever substance might result from the action of 
potash upon hyperoxygenized muriatic acid, 
I took a portion of this liquor, which I shall call entire 
liquor * and distilled it to dryness in a glass retort, taking 
care to screen it from light. A tube from the receiver commu- 
nicated with the pneumatic tub. My object was to ascertain, 
whether the change observed by Mr. Berthollet, in the distribu- 
tion of the elements of oxygenized muriatic acid, to form, with 
potash, a simple and a hyperoxygenized muriate, really took 
place among those elements themselves, independently of any 
absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere, or extrication of it 
from the salt. Nothing but some water, and a few inches of the 
dilated air of the vessels, passed into the receiver and the 
pneumatic apparatus ; and I found, in the retort, a saline 
massyf perfectly dry and crystallized. Hence it is evident, that 
the same quantity of oxygen as that formerly contained in the 
oxygenized muriatic acid, which had been united to the alkali, 
to form the total mass of salt, was now condensed, in that part 
which had become hyperoxygenized muriate. 
To ascertain this quantity, I dissolved 100 grains of the entire 
salt in water, and precipitated by nitrate of silver. I thus ob- 
tained a quantity of muriate of silver, which, by proportions 
previously determined, I knew to correspond to 84 of muriate 
® I am well aware that, upon philosophical principles, this appellation is objection- 
able ; but, for the sake of brevity, I have used it as a temporary name, for a substance 
which has only a relative existence among chemical bodies, 
t This salt, I shall call entire salt . 
