40 6 Sir H. Davy on some Combinations 
2. Of some Combinations of Phosphorus. 
In a paper read before the Royal Society in 1810, I have 
described the mutual action of phosphorus and oxymuriatic 
gas, or chlorine. I have noticed two compounds which appear 
to be distinct and peculiar bodies, formed by the union of the 
gas and the inflammable substance. One is solid, white, and 
crystalline in its appearance ; easily volatile, and capable of 
forming a fixed infusible substance by uniting with ammonia. 
The other is fluid, limpid as water, and, as I have since found, 
of specific gravity 1.45; it produces dense fumes by acting 
upon the water of the atmosphere, and when exposed to the 
atmosphere gradually disappears, leaving no residuum. 
The composition of the white sublimate is very easily as- 
certained by synthetical experiments, such as I have described 
on a former occasion in the Transactions. By employing 
chlorine dried by muriate of lime, in great excess, and making 
the experiments in exhausted vessels, and admitting solution 
of chlorine to ascertain the quantity of gas absorbed, I have 
ascertained that 3 grains of phosphorus unite with about 20 
grains of chlorine to form the sublimate. 
If the phosphorus be in great excess in the experiment of 
its combustion in chlorine, some of the liquor is formed with 
the sublimate ; but to obtain it in considerable quantities, phos- 
phorus should be passed in vapour through heated powdered 
corrosive sublimate. A bent glass tube may be used for the 
process, and the liquor condensed in a cold vessel connected 
with the tube. 
I have not been able to determine its composition by syn- 
thetical experiments ; but by pouring it gradually into water. 
