m 
Mr. Davy’s Experiments on the 
was exhausted, and then connected with the globe containing 
the o^cy muriatic gas, and by an appropriate set of stopcocks, 
the paper was exposed to the action of the gas. No change of 
colour took place, and after two days there was scarcely a 
perceptible alteration. 
Some similar paper dried, introduced into gas that had not 
been exposed to muriate of lime, was instantly rendered white.* 
Paper that had not been previously dried, brought in con- 
tact with dried gas, underwent the same change, but more 
slowly. 
The hyperoxymuriates seem to owe their bleaching powers 
entirely to their loosely combined oxygene ; there is a strong 
tendency in the metal of those in common use, to form simple 
combinations with oxymuriatic gas, and the oxygene is easily 
expelled or attracted from them. 
It is generally stated in chemical books, that oxymuriatic 
gas is capable of being condensed and crystallized at a low 
temperature ; I have found by several experiments that this is 
not the case. The solution of oxymuriatic gas in water 
freezes more readily than pure water, but the pure gas dried 
by muriate of lime undergoes no change whatever, at a tem- 
perature of 40 below o° of Fahrenheit. The mistake seems 
to have arisen from the exposure of the gas to cold in botttles 
containing moisture. 
I attempted to decompose boracic and phosphoric acids by 
oxymuriatic gas, but without success ; from which it seems 
probable, that the attractions of boracium and phosphorus for 
* The last experiments were made in the laboratory of the Dublin Society; most of 
the preceding ones in the laboratory of the Royal Institution ; and I have been per- 
mitted to refer to them by the Managers of that useful public establishment. 
