IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
161 
matter of the evolution of hydrogen the same reaction 
holds true in general of the action of chloric acid on other 
metals. In no case when the temperature has been kept 
moderately low has there been evidence of the formation 
of a lower acid, an oxide of chlorine or free chlorine. 
Save in the case of iron, where the question of impurity is 
uncertain, the amount of metal dissolved has been ac- 
counted for by the amount of reduction of the acid, or the 
reduction and the hydrogen set free. It is possible that 
some irregularity in the reaction took place in the case of 
iron and in other instances, even though it was not de- 
tected. Since chloric acid is almost as highly dissociated 
as hydrochloric acid it must be that a large portion of the 
HC1 formed by the reduction exists in the solution in the 
free condition, and it might be expected that the two acids 
would act upon each other according to some one of their 
known reactions. If such action occurs its extent must 
evidently be quite small. 
There is yet a persistent tendency as shown in chemical 
literature to regard the reduction of an acid in its action 
on a metal, as in the case of the action of hot sulphuric 
acid on copper, as due to the “nascent” hydrogen first set 
free. Thus, 
Cu+H 2 S0 4 =H 2 +CtiS0 4 
H 2 +H 2 S0 4 =2H 2 0+S0 2 . 
In the case of chloric acid, however, we have all varie- 
ties of reaction, from that of the action of the acid on 
sodium and potassium, where nearly the full equivalent of 
the hydrogen is set free and the reduction of the acid is 
extremely small, to that of the action of the same acid on 
iron, tin and copper, in which no hydrogen is set free and 
nearly or quite the full equivalent of the metal appears in 
the amount of reduced acid. It would seem, therefore, 
that since the temperature is practically the same in all 
cases, as well as the concentration of the acid, that the re- 
duction can not be accounted for on the basis of nascent 
hydrogen. In each case it seems to be rather a mere ques- 
tion of the tendency of the metal, under the conditions, to 
oxidize at the expense of the oxygen of the acid, or, to go 
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