380 Dr. Austin on the 
I was not apprifed, when I hrd thefe experiments in hand, 
that the firft object of my inquiry, the decompofition of volatile 
alkali, and analyfis of its parts, had been fuccefsfully treated 
by the celebrated M. Be rtiiollet ; and that his obfervations had 
appeared in Rozjer’s Journal fome months before. To him 
therefore I give up that part of the fubjeCt ; and fhall confine 
myfelf in the following obfervations to fome experiments on 
the formation of volatile alkali, and on the affinities of the 
phlogifticated and light inflammable airs, which have not, I 
believe, been hitherto taken notice of. 
Firft, I endeavoured to combine the phlogifticated and light 
inflammable airs, by mixing them together in various propor- 
tions in their elaftic flate, and adding to them fuch fubftances as 
1 thought likely to promote their uniting and forming an alkali. 
With this view, I threw up to the mixture of thefe airs, ma- 
rine acid air, the marine and vitriolic acids, to which I alfo joined 
alkaline air. I tried the effect of cold upon thefe mixtures, 
by applying to the tubes containing them cloths moiftened 
with ether. I even paffed the eleCtric fpark repeatedly through 
them, though with little probability of fuccefs. Laftly, I 
decompofed alkaline air, and tried to reunite the identical parts 
which formed it by fimilar additions ; but I could not perceive, 
that in any inftance volatile alkali was produced from its two 
conftituent parts mixed together in their Ample aeriform flate. 
Yet it is well known, that thefe two bodies unite very rea- 
dily, when they are not in an elaftic Rate. An unexpected 
appearance of volatile alkali had been obferved by Dr. Priest- 
ley and Mr. Kirwan before we were acquainted with its 
conftitution, and by M. Haussman fmce this difcovery of 
M. Berthollet. An experiment was exhibited before feve- 
ral Gentlemen at Sir Joseph Banks’s Houfe, fome years ago. 
