on the Nature of certain Bodies. 4,67 
contact with oxymuriatic acid gas, the combustion instantly 
ceases. I electrified two pieces of charcoal in a globe filled with 
oxymuriatic acid gas, which had been introduced after ex- 
haustion of the globe. They were preserved, for nearly an 
hour, in intense ignition, by the same means that had been em- 
ployed in the experiment on nitrogens. At first, white fumes 
arose, probably principally from the formation of common 
muriatic acid gas, by the action of the hydrogene of the char- 
coal upon the oxymuriatic acid, and the combination of the gas 
so produced, with aqueous vapour in the globe; but this effect 
soon ceased. At the end of the process, the oxymuriatic acid 
gas was found unaltered in its properties, and copper leaf burnt 
in it with a vivid light. The charcoal did not perceptibly differ 
from the charcoal that had been exposed to nitrogene. My 
view in making this experiment, was to ascertain whether some 
new combination of carbonaceous matter with oxygene might 
not be formed in the process, and I hoped likewise to be able 
to free charcoal entirely from combined hydrogene, and from 
alkaline and earthy matter, supposing they existed in it, not 
fully combined with oxygene. That hydrogene must have 
separated in the experiment, it is not possible to doubt, and on 
evaporating the deposit on the sides of the globe, which was 
in very minute quantity, and acted like concentrated muriatic 
acid, it left a perceptible saline residuum.* 
* Charcoal, over which sulphur has been passed, as in the experiments, page 465, 
as has been shewn by M. A. Berthollet, contains sulphur, and this I find after 
being heated to whiteness ; such charcoal is a conductor of electricity, and does not 
differ in its external properties from common charcoal. 
