24$ Mr. Davy’s Researches on the 
the decomposition of salt by moistened litharge, the theory 
of which has so much perplexed the most acute chemists. 
It may be conceived to be an instance of compound affinity : 
the oxymuriatic acid is attracted by the lead, and the sodium 
combines with the oxygene of the litharge and with water 
to form hydrat of soda, which gradually attracts carbonic acid 
from the air. 
As iron has a strong affinity for oxymuriatic acid, I 
attempted, to procure soda by passing steam over a mixture 
of iron filings, and muriate of soda intensely heated : and in 
this way, I succeeded in decomposing some of the salt: hy- 
drogene came over ; a little hydrate of soda was formed ; and 
muriate of iron was produced. 
It does not seem improbable, supposing the views that have 
been developed accurate, that by complex affinities, even potas- 
sium and sodium in their metallic form, may be procured from 
their oxymuriatic combinations : for this purpose the oxymu- 
riatic acid should be attracted by one substance, and the 
alkaline metals by another ; and such bodies should be selected 
for the experiment, as would produce compounds differing 
considerably in degree of volatility. 
I cannot conclude the subject of the application of these 
doctrines, without asking permission to direct the attention of 
the Society, to some of the theoretical relations of the facts 
noticed in the preceding pages. 
That a body principally composed of oxymuriatic acid and 
ammonia, two substances which have been generally conceived 
incapable of existing together, should be so difficult of de- 
composition, as to be scarcely affected by any of the agents 
of chemistry, is a phenomenon of a perfectly new kind. 
