134 Mr, Chenevix's Observations and Experiments 
takes place during the whole of the saturation, and for some 
days after; and this effervescence, he attributes to the escape 
of oxygen. But I have already said, that no oxygen gas was 
disengaged in any part of my process ; and no effervescence 
took place in any of the bottles, except the third ; so that, no 
superabundance of oxygen could have passed from one into the 
other, nor could any diminution of the total quantity have been 
produced. By repeating the experiments, sometimes with a so- 
lution of alkali, and sometimes with water alone, in the first 
bottle, I obtained the liquor in the second bottle uniform in all 
cases. Indeed, as potash prepared in Mr. Berthqllet's man- 
ner, was not in such general use at the time he performed his 
experiments as at present, I suspect that a great part of this 
effervescence was owing to a disengagement of carbonic acid 
from the alkali. 
Having thus proved the difference between the states of these 
two acids, I shall now proceed to the combination of each with 
salifiable bases. 
OXYGENIZED MURIATES. 
As many properties of the entire liquor, before it had been 
evaporated to dryness, had led me to imagine that the acid was 
united with the alkali, and remained in combination with it, in 
the state of oxygenized muriatic acid, till the moment of crys- 
tallization, I think it necessary to state at length the appear- 
ances w'hich induced me to draw that conclusion, and the expe- 
riments which afterwards convinced me that it was erroneous. 
A few drops of sulphuric acid, poured into some of the entire 
liquor, caused an effervescence, and a smell of hyperoxygenized 
muriatic acid. 
