constitution of the prussic and other acids , &c. 2 25 
in the prussiate had been added to it, making together six 
of that oxide, to one of prussic acid, and that whenever a less 
quantity of the oxide than this had been employed, there 
always existed in the gaseous products, a portion of unde- 
composed prussic acid. I farther observed, that in all cases 
the volume of azote gas obtained, was exactly equal to that 
of the prussic acid decomposed, that the volume of carbonic 
acid gas produced was invariably twice that of the azote 
gas liberated in the same experiment, and that the carbonic 
acid produced accounted for only one third of the oxygen 
consumed. The observance of these laws by which the decom- 
position was regulated, enabled me in constructing the follow- 
ing Table (facing page 228,) to correct the minute and un- 
avoidable inaccuracies of experiment, by the superior accuracy 
to be acquired by applying to the results so obtained, the cor- 
rections necessary to make them correspond with the above- 
mentioned laws. It enabled me also to represent in the column 
denoting the measures of prussic acid gas, equal quantities by 
equal bulks; which, for the reasons before stated, experiment 
does not exactly show, and thus to render evident the true 
progress of its decomposition. 
It may be proper before proceeding farther, to describe my 
mode of operating, in conducting the experiments from which 
the Table was compiled. This mode is similar in principle to 
that invented by Gay Lussac and Thenard in their Analysis 
of Animal and Vegetable substances, and improved by Ber- 
zelius. I am greatly indebted to these two French chemists, 
for the valuable information respecting this kind of analysis, 
which I have obtained from their Recherches Physico-Chymi- 
ques, and to Dr. Berzelius for that which I have received 
mdcccxv. G g 
