THE 
EDINBURGH 
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 
Art. I. — Account of the Recent Chemical Researches of M. Ber* 
ZELivs and his Pupils, In a Letter to Dr Brewster from 
a Correspondent in Stockholm. Continued from Vol. IV. 
p. 22.) 
1. Experiments of M, Berzelius upon the Alkaline Sulphufets, 
and on the Combinations f Alkalies with Metallic Sulphurets, 
M • Berzelius has communicated to the Academy of Sci- 
ences of Stockholm, a Memoir on the Alkaline Sulphurets, in 
which he has endeavoured to develope the nature of these sub- 
stances, of which we owe the first detailed account to the labours 
of M. Berthollet. {Annales de Chimie, tom* xxv.) Having 
discovered the presence of sulphuric acid in Hepar, M. Ber- 
thollet attributed its formation to the decomposition of water, 
the hydrogen of which combining with another part of the sul- 
phur, gave rise to the sulphuretted hydrogen* M. Vauquelin, 
who has more recently examined these combinations, concludes 
from his experiments that it was probable, but not proved, that 
the sulphuric acid is already formed before the addition of 
water, and that the Hepar is a mixture of sulphate of po- 
tash, and of sulphuret of potassium. In this case, the sulphur 
acidifies itself at the expence of the potash. As the experiments 
of M. Vauquelin leave this question undecided, M. Gay Lus- 
sac adduced new proofs in favour of the opinion of that chemist. 
He observed, that when potash or alcohol is treated with sul- 
phur, at a temperature scarcely so great as red heat, it forms 
the hyposulphite of potash, and not a sulphate; and by con- 
VOL. VI. NO. 11. January 1822. a 
