218 
Sir Humphry Davy on the action of acids 
proportion obtained in the experiments with nitric acid, being 
evolved during the time the mixtures were made. 
The saturated solution of the gas affords white fumes, 
similar to those produced at the moment the hydro-sulphuric 
mixture is made, from which it is probable, that these fumes 
consist of a hydrate of the gas. 
The saturated solution, when mixed with solution of fixed 
alkalies, or of ammonia, does not immediately lose its colour, 
nor neutralise the alkalies ; but after some time the effect is 
produced, and hyper-oxymuriates are obtained, (probably 
mixed with a minute quantity of muriates). The solution ex- 
posed to air, or suffered to remain in close vessels, becomes 
soon colourless ; and I am inclined to believe that this depends 
upon a decomposition of water, for some of it exposed to a 
small quantity of air rather increased its volume. 
I shall not propose to give any name to this substance, till 
it is determined whether euchlorine is a mixture or a definite 
compound, and I hope soon to have the means of making a 
decisive experiment on this subject. 
It appears that this new substance, though it contains four 
proportions of oxygene, is not an acid ; and hence it is pro- 
bable, that the acid fluid compound of oxygene, chlorine, and 
water, which M. Gay Lussac calls chloric acid, owes its acid 
powers to combined hydrogene, and that it is analogous to 
the other hyper-oxymuriates, which are triple compounds 
of inflammable bases, chlorine, and oxygene, in which the 
base and the chlorine determine the character of the com- 
pound. Muriate of potassa, ( potassane) is a perfectly neutral 
body; and when six proportions of oxygene are added to 
k, it still remains neutral. Muriatic acid ( chlorine and hydro- 
