of carbonic Oxide and Chlorine. 149 
be absorbed unaltered by common spirits of wine, which con- 
tains so considerable a quantity of water ; it imparted its pe- 
culiar odour to the spirit, and its property of affecting the 
eyes ; live measures of the spirit condensed sixty measures 
of the gas. 
It is also absorbed by the fuming liquor of arsenic, and by 
the oxymuriate of sulphur. 
The former appeared to require for saturation ten times its 
own volume ; six measures of the liquor condensed about sixty 
of the gas. The liquor thus impregnated was thrown into 
water, and a pretty appearance was produced by the sudden 
escape of bubbles of the gas ; had not its intolerable smell 
convinced me that the gas was unaltered, I should not have 
conceived that it could pass through water undecomposed. 
I cannot account for the assertion of M. M. Gay Lussac 
and Thenard and of Mr. Murray, that oxymuriatic gas does 
not, when under the influence of light, exert any action on 
carbonic oxide : I was inclined at first to suppose that the dif- 
ference between their results and mine, might be owing to 
their not having exposed the gasses together to bright sun- 
shine ; but I have been obliged to relinquish this idea, since I 
have found that bright sun-shine is not essential, and that the 
combination is produced in less than twelve hours by the in- 
direct solar rays, light alone being necessary. 
The formation of the new gas may be very readily wit® 
nessed, by making a mixture of dry carbonic oxide and chlo- 
rine in a glass tube over mercury : if light be excluded, the 
chlorine will be absorbed by the mercury, the carbonic oxide 
alone remaining ; but if bright sun-shine be immediately ad- 
mitted when the mixture is first made, a rapid ascension of 
