muriatic Acid in its different States. 241 
Can the oxymuriatic acid combine either with oxygene or 
hydrogene, and form with each of them an acid compound ; 
of which that with hydrogene has the strongest, and that with 
oxygene the weakest affinity for bases ? for the able chemist 
to whom I have just referred, conceives that hyperoxy- 
muriates are decomposed by muriatic acid. Or, is hyperoxv- 
muriatic acid the basis of all this class of bodies, the most 
simple form of this species of matter ? 
The phsenomena of the composition and decomposition of 
the hyperoxymuriates, may be explained on either of these 
suppositions; but they are mere suppositions unsupported by 
experiment. 
I have endeavoured to obtain the neutralizing acid, which 
has been imagined to be hyperoxygenised, from hyperoxy- 
muriate of potash, by various modes, but uniformly without 
success. By distilling the salt with dry boracic acid, though 
a little oxymuriatic acid is generated, yet oxygene is the chief 
gaseous product, and a muriate of potash not decomposable is 
produced. 
The distillation of the orange coloured fluid, produced by 
dissolving hyperoxymuriate of potash in sulphuric acid, affords 
only oxygene in great excess, and oxymuriatic acid. 
When solutions of muriates, or muriatic acid are electrized 
in the Voltaic circuit, oxymuriatic acid is evolved at the 
positive surface, and hydrogene at the negative surface. 
When a solution of oxymuriatic acid in water is electrized, 
oxymuriatic acid and oxygene appear * at the positive surface, 
* The quantity of oxymuriatic acid in the aqueous solution, is so small, that the 
principal products must be referred to the decomposition of water. This happens in 
other instances ; the water only is decomposed in dilute solutions of nitric and sul- 
phuric acids. 
