on the Nature of certain Bodies. 63 
mediately seen, is an evidence of the existence of oxygene in 
sulphur. 
In my early experiments on potassium, procured by elec- 
tricity, I heated small globules of potassium in large quantities 
of sulphuretted hydrogene, and I found that sulphuret of pot- 
ash was formed * but this might be owing to the water dis- 
solved in the gas, and I ventured to draw no conclusion till I 
had tried the experiment in an unobjectionable manner. 
I heated four grains of potassium in a retort of the capacity 
of twenty cubical inches ; it had been filled after the usual pro- 
cesses of exhaustion with sulphuretted hydrogene, dried by 
means of muriate of lime that had been heated to whiteness ; 
as soon as the potassium fused, white fumes were copiously 
emitted, and the potassium soon took fire, and burnt with a 
most brilliant flame, yellow in the centre and red towards 
the circumference.* 
The diminution of the volume of the elastic matter, in this 
operation, did not equal more than two cubical inches and a half. 
A very small quantity of the residual gas only was absorb- 
able by water. The non-absorbable gas was hydrogene, 
holding a minute quantity of sulphur in solution. 
A yellow sublimate lined the upper part of the retort, which 
proved to be sulphur. The solid matter formed was red at the 
surface like sulphuret of potash, but in the interior it was dark 
gray, like sulphuret of potassium. The piece of the retort 
containing it was introduced into a jar inverted over mercury, 
* In the Moniteur, May 27, 1808, in the account of M. M. Gay Lussac’s and 
Thenard’s experiments, it is mentioned, that potassium absorbs the sulphur and a 
part of the hydrogene of sulphuretted hydrogene ; but the phenomena of inflamma- 
tion is not mentioned, nor are the results described. 
