120 
METALLIC COMPOUNDS. 
Theoretical 
considera- 
tions. 
of intimacy of combination which we find between different 
proportions of the same substances, may, under certain circum- 
stances, exist between the same proportions. 
The phenomena here related will afford for the theory of 
fire and of chemical combination, some very important results, 
which cannot, perhaps, be yet foreseen, and approaches what 
the celebrated Davy discoveied in the decomposition of super- 
oxidum muriaticum* (Euchlorine D.) At present the most 
probable explanation appears to be, that the stibic and stibious 
acids can form combinations with several saline bases in two 
different degrees of intimacy j and both in the same propor- 
tions between the acid and the base. The salts possessing all the 
characteristics of combinations, no chemist can consider them 
as mechanical mixtures. But when they become heated, they 
* Sir H.Davy has found, that the superoxidum muriaticum, is decom- 
posed at a temperature between 35° and 40°, with the phenomena of 
fire, and produces oxigen gas and gas superoxidum muriatosum. There 
is, then, in this instance, a chemical separation, accompanied by the same 
phenomena which take place in all acts of intimate combination. There 
is, w ithout doubt, a great anomaly which, in the hypothesis of chlorine, 
will remain an enigma. If, on the contrary, the superoxidum contains, 
according to the laws of determinate combinations, twice as much oxi- 
gen as muriatic acid, it may be supposed, that this second portion of 
oxigen is therein combined w ith an extremely weak affinity, which, 
in their combination, was not capable of producing the phenomenon of 
fire. The superoxidum muriatosum (oxymuriatic gas) is a combi- 
nation of muriatic acid with fealf as much oxigen, which the acid 
does not contain itself, and the oxigen is found combined in a much 
more intimate degree ; so much so, that it cannot be ex died without 
a complex affinity. At a temperature rather elevated, the gas super- 
oxidum muriaticum produces the gas supes ox. muriatosum, by com- 
bining the half of its excess of oxigen with the muriatic acid, in a 
more intimate manner, and producing, for this reason, the phenome- 
non of fire. The other half of the oxigen, yielding to a stronger 
affinity, is disengaged, and the gas is expanded. The only difficulty 
in this explanation is to consider the superoxidum muriatic ni as 
composed of muriatic acid and oxigen, and not as composed of su- 
perox. muriatosum and oxigen, which is our usual manner of consi- 
dering the different degrees of oxidation, and which appears to be 
correct in a number of circumstances; but which, nevertheless, is not 
a manner of combination requisite in all cases. In short, I merely 
quote this explanation as a probability, and as the only one I have as 
yet been able to contemplate. 
produce 
