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VI. On two new compounds of Chlorine and Carbon , and on 
a new compound of Iodine , Carbon , and Hydrogen. By 
Mr. Faraday, Chemical Assistant in the Royal Institution. 
Communicated by W. T. Brande, Esq, Sec . R. S. and Prof. 
Chem. R. I. 
Read December 21, 1820. 
One of the first circumstances that induced Sir H. Davy 
to doubt the compound nature of what was formerly called 
oxymuriatic acid gas, was the want of action of heated char- 
coal upon it ; and considerable use of the same agent, and of 
the phenomena exhibited by it in different circumstances with 
chlorine, was afterwards made in establishing the simple 
nature of that body. 
The true nature of chlorine being ascertained, it became of 
importance to form all the possible compounds of it with 
other elementary substances, and to examine them in the 
new view had of their nature. This investigation has been 
pursued with such success at different times, that very few 
elements remain uncombined with it ; but with respect to 
carbon, the very circumstance which first tended to correct 
the erroneous opinions which, after Scheele’s time, and before 
the year 1810, had gone abroad respecting its nature, proved 
an obstacle to the formation of its compounds ; and up to the 
present time, the chlorides of carbon have escaped the re- 
searches of chemists. 
That the difficulty met with in forming a compound of 
chlorine and carbon, was probably not owing to any want or 
