£44 Mr. Davy's Researches on the 
riatic acid, may be regarded as analogous bodies. The com- 
binations of oxymuriatic acid with lead, silver, mercury, 
potassium, and sodium, in this view would be considered as a 
class of bodies related more to oxides than acids, in their 
powers of attraction. 
It is needless to take up the time of this learned Society by 
dwelling upon the imperfection of the modern nomenclature 
of these substances. It is in many cases connected with false 
ideas of their nature and composition, and in a more advanced 
state of the enquiry, it will be necessary for the progress of 
science, that it should undergo material alterations. 
It is extremely probable that there are many combinations of 
the oxymuriatic acid with inflammable bodies which have not 
been yet investigated. With phosphorus it seems capable of 
combining in at least three proportions ; the phosphuretted 
muriatic acid of Gay Lussac and Thenard is the compound 
containing the maximum of phosphorus. The chrystalline 
phosphoric sublimate, and the liquor formed by the combus- 
tion of phosphorus in oxymuriatic acid gas, disengage no 
phosphorus by the action of water ; the sublimate, as I have 
already mentioned, affords phosphoric and muriatic acid ; and 
the liquid, I believe only phosphorous acid and muriatic acid. 
The sublimate from the boracic basis gives, I believe, only 
boracic and muriatic acid, and may be regarded as boracium 
acidified by oxymuriatic acid. 
It is evident, that whenever an oxymuriatic combination 
is decomposed by water, the oxide or acid or alkali or oxidated 
body formed must be in the same proportion as the muriatic 
acid gas, as the oxygene and hydrogene must bear the same 
relation to each other ; and experiments upon these com- 
