of chlorine and carbon, &c. 
67 
it passes slightly coloured, and the tube and crystal are 
blackened on the surface by charcoal. I am uncertain whe- 
ther this decomposition ought not to be attributed rather to 
the action of the glass at this high temperature than to the 
heat alone. 
It is not soluble in water, but remains at the bottom of it 
in drops, for many weeks, without any action. 
It is soluble in alcohol and ether, and the solutions burn with 
a greenish flame, evolving fumes of muriatic acid.- 
It is soluble in the volatile and fixed oils. The volatile oils 
containing it burn with the emission of fumes of muriatic acid. 
When the solutions of it in the fixed oils are heated, they do 
not blacken or evolve fumes of muriatic acid. It is therefore 
probable, that when this happens with the solution of the 
perchloride in fixed oils, it is from its conversion by the heat 
into proto-chloride and the liberation of chlorine. 
It is not soluble in alkaline solutions, nor do they act on it 
in some days. Neither is it at all soluble in, or affected by, 
strong nitric, muriatic, or sulphuric acids. 
Solutions of silver do not act on it. 
Oxygen decomposes it at high temperatures, forming car- 
bonic oxide, or acid, and liberating chlorine. 
Chlorine dissolves in it in considerable quantity, but has no 
farther action, or only a very slow one in common day light ; 
on exposure to solar light, a different result takes place. 
I have only had two days, and those in the middle of Novem- 
ber, on which I could expose the proto-chloride of carbon in 
atmospheres of chlorine to solar light ; and hence the con- 
version of the whole of the proto-chloride was not perfect ; 
but at the end of those two days the retorts containing the 
