788 
theory of the combustion of the mercurial 
powder will be obvious to every chemist. 
The hydrogen of the oxalic acid, and of the 
etherized gas, is first united to the oxygen 
of the oxalate, forming water ; the carbon is 
saturated with oxygen, forming carbonic acid 
gas ; and a part, h not the whole of the ni- 
trogen of tiie etherized gas, is separated in 
tire state of nitrogen gas ; both which last 
gases, it may be recollected, were after the 
explosion present in the glass globe. The 
mercury is revived, and, 1 presume, thrown 
into vapour ; as may well be imagined, from 
the immense quantity of caloric extricated, 
by adding concentrate sulphuric acid to the 
inercnrial powder. 
“ I will not venture to state with accu- 
racy in what proportions its constituent 
principles are combined. The affinities I 
have brought into play are complicated, and 
the constitution of the substances I have to 
deal with not fully known. But to make 
round numbers, I will resume the statement, 
that 100 gra ns of the mercurial powder lost 
10 grains of its original weight, by treatment 
with dilute sulphuric acid : 84 grains of the 
mercurial oxalate, mixed with a few 7 minute 
globules of quicksilver, remained undissolved 
in the acid. Tiye sulphuric liquor was satu- 
rated with carbonic of potass, and yielded 
3.4 grains of carbonate of mercury. If 1.4 
grains should be thought a proper allowance 
for the weight of carbonic acid in the 3.4 
grains, 1 will make that deduction, and add 
the remaining 2 grains to the 84 grains of 
mercurial oxalate and quicksilver ; ■ I shall 
then have. 
Of oxalate and mercury - 86 grains. 
And a deiicit, to be ascribed to 
the nitrous etherized gas and 
excess of oxygen, - 14 
■ 100 
, " It may perhaps be proper to proceed 
still further, and recur to the 48.5 grains, 
separated by nitrate of lime from the 84 
grains of mercurial oxalate and globules of 
quicksilver. These 48.5 grains were proved to 
be oxalate of lime ; but they contained a mi- 
nute inseparable quantity of mercury, almost 
in the state of quicksilver, formerly part of the 
84 grains from which they were separated. 
Had the 48.5 grains been pure calcareous ox- 
alate, the quantity of pure oxalic acid in them j 
would, according to Bergman n, be 23.28 
grains. Hence, by omitting the 2 grains 
of mercury, in the 3.4 grains of carbonate, 
100 grains of the mercurial powder might 
have been said to contain of pure oxalic acid 
23.28 grains; of mercury 62.72 grains; and 
oi nitrous etherized gas and excess of oxygen 
14 grains. But as the 48.5 grains w T ere not 
pure oxalate, inasmuch as they contained the 
mercury they received from the 84 grains, 
from which tiiey were generated by the ni- 
trate of lime, -some allowance must he made 
for the mercury successively intermixed with 
the 84 grains and the 48.5 grains. In order 
to make corresponding numbers, and allow 
for unavoidable errors, I shall estimate the 
quantity of that mercury to have amounted 
to 2 grains, which I must of course deduct 
from fhe 33.28 grains of oxalic acid. 1 shall 
then have the following statement : 
FULMINATION. 
That 100 grains of fulminating 
mercury ought to contain of 
pure oxalic acid, - - 21,28 grains. 
Qf mercury formerly unit- 
ed to the oxalic acid 60.72 
Of mercury dissolved in 
the sulphuric liquor, 2 
And of mercury left in the 
sulphuric liquor after 
the separation of the 
gases, 2 
Total of mercury, 64.72 
Of nitrous etherized gas, and 
excess of oxygen, - 14 
100 
“ Since 100 grains of the powder seem to 
contain 64.72 grains of mercury, it will be 
immediately enquired, vvliat becomes of 100 
grains ot quicksilver, when treated as di- 
rected, in the description of tire process for 
preparing the fulminating mercury. 
“ It has been stated that 100 grains of 
quicksilver produce, under different circum- 
stances, from 120 to 132 grains of mercu- 
rial powder; and, if 100 grains of this powder 
contain 64.72 grains, 120 grains, or 132 
grains, must, bv parity of reasoning, contain 
78.06 grains, or 85.47 grains ; therefore 13.34 
grains, or 20.75 grains, more of the 100 
grains are immediately accounted for; be- 
cause 64.72 grains -f- 13.34 grains = 78.06, 
and 64.72 grains -f- 20.75 grains = 85.47 
grains. The remaining deficiency of 21. 94 
grains, or 14.53 grains, which with the 78.06 
grains, or 85.47 grains, would complete the 
original 100 of quicksilver, remains partly in 
the liquor from which the powder is sepa- 
rated, and is partly volatilized in the white 
dense fumes, which in the beginning of this 
paper I compared to the liquor fumans of 
Libavius. The mercury cannot, in either 
instance, be obtained in a form immediately 
indicative of its quantity ; and a series of 
experiments, to ascertain the quantities in 
which many different substances can com- 
bine with mercury, is not my present object. 
After observing that the mercury left in the 
residuary liquor can be precipitated in a very 
subtle dark powder, by carbonate of potass, 
I shall content myself with examining the 
nature of the white fumes. 
“ It is clear that these white fumes contain 
mercury: they may he wholly condensed 
in a range of Woulfe’s apparatus, charged 
with a solution of muriate, of ammonia. 
When the operation is over, a white powder 
is seen Uoating with ether on the saline li- 
quor, which, if the bottles are agitated, is 
entirely dissolved. After the mixture has 
been boiled, or for some time exposed to the 
atmosphere, it yields to caustic ammonia 
a precipitate, in all respects similar to that 
which is separated by caustic ammonia from 
corrosive sublimate. 
“ I would infer from these facts, that the 
white dense fumes consist of mercury, or 
perhaps oxide of mercury, united to the ni- 
trous etherized gas ; and that, when the 
muriate of ammonia containing them is ex- 
posed to the atmosphere, or is boiled, the 
gas separates from the mercury ; and the 
excess of nitrous acid, which always comes 
over with nitrous ether, decomposes the am- 
uioniacal muriate of sublimate, and forms 
corrosive mercurial muriate or sublimate. 
This theory is corroborated by comparing 
the quantity of gas estimated to be contain- 
ed in the fulminating mercury with the quan- 
tities ot gas yielded from alcohol and nitrous 
acid, with and without mercury in solution ; 
not to mention that more ether, as well as 
more gas, is produced without the interven- 
tion of mercury ; and that, according to the 
Dutch chemists, the product of ether is al- 
ways in the inverse ratio to the product of 
nitrous etherized gas. Should a further 
proof be thought necessary to the existence 
of the nitrous etherized gas in the fulminat- 
ing mercury, as well as "in the white dense 
fumes, it may be added, that if a mixture of 
alcohol and nitrous acid holding mercury in 
solution be so dilute, and exposed of a tem- 
perature so low, that neither ether nor ni- 
trous etherized gas are produced, the ful- 
minating mercury, or the white fumes, will 
never be generated ; for, under such circum- 
stances, the mercury is precipitated chiefly 
in the state of an inflammable oxalate. Fur- 
ther, when we consider the different sub- 
stances formed by an union of nitrous acid 
and alcohol, we are so far acquainted with 
all, ex cept the ether and the nitrous etherized 
gas, as to create a presumption, that no 
others are capable of volatilizing mercury, 
at the very low temperature in which the 
white fumes exist, since, during some minutes, 
they are permanent over water of 40° Fah- 
renheit. 
“ Hitherto, as much only lias been said 
of the gas which is separated from the mer- 
curial powder by dilute sulphuric acid, as 
was necessary to identify it with that into 
which the same acid can resolve the nitrous 
etherized gas : 1 have further to speak of its 
peculiarity. 
“ The characteristic properties of the in- 
flammable gas seem to me to be the follow- 
ing: 1st. It does not diminish in volume, 
either with oxygen or nitrous gas. 2dlv. It 
will not explode with oxygen by the electric 
shock, in a close vessel. 3d!y. It burns like 
hydrocarbonate, but with a blueish-ureejn 
flame ; and, 4thly. It is permanent over 
water. 
“It is of course either not formed, or is 
convertible into nitrous gas by the concen- 
trate nitric and muriatic acids ; because by 
those acids, no inflammable gas was extri- 
cated from the powder. 
“ Should this inflammable gas prove not to 
be hydrocarbonate, I shall be disposed to con- 
clude that it has nitrogen for its basis; in- 
deed, l am at this moment inclined to' that 
opinion, because I find that Dr. Priestley, dur- 
ing his experiments on his dephlogistigated 
nitrous air, once produced a gas which seems 
to have resembled this inflammable <ms, 
both in the mode of burning and in the°co- 
lour of the flame. 
“ After the termination of the common 
solution of iron in spirit of nitre, he used 
heat, and got, says he, ‘such a kind of air 
as I had brought nitrous air to be, by ex- 
posing it to iron, or liver of sulphur ; for, 
on the first trial, a candle burned in it with 
a much enlarged flame. At another time 
the application of a candle to air produced 
in this manner, was attended with a real, 
though not a loud explosion ; and immedi- 
ately after this a greenish-coloured flame 
