SIE B. C. BEODIE ON THE CALCULUS OF CHEMICAL OPEEATIONS. 
61 
unit a# 2 | 2 , our binoxide of acetylene, cannot exist as a gas, but is invariably resolved into 
the two units a#| and #£ according to the equation 
ux% 2 =(cc)cI-\-kZ), 
“ The weight of a unit of these mixed gases will be precisely that given by your 
experiments, namely 14'5; and, moreover, it appears to us that we can explain all that 
we, or you, know about the gas from this point of view. 
“ The two units jointly (and you know no more) are identical with a unit of acetylene 
and a unit of oxygen ; thus 
(a#£-|-#£) = a# 2 + f. 
“ Five units of hydrogen and two units of your gas are identical with and capable of 
being resolved into two units of a 2 # (marsh-gas) and two units of a£ (water) ; thus 
5a + (a#| + *£) = 2 a 2 # + 2ag, 
which equation is identical with the sum of the two equations 
2a -j- a#| = a 2 # -f- a|, 
3a+^|=a 2 #+a|. 
“If you ask us to explain the origin of the unit a# 2 ! 4 (oxalic acid) by the oxidation 
of the unit a# 2 ! 2 , we may go further in the same direction. We have 
( a#| + #|) + f = (a#f -f ) . 
“ Now the weight of a unit of the mixed gases a#£ 2 (formic acid) and #| 2 is precisely 
that which you have assigned to the unit az%\ namely 22*5. 
“ It is easy to render an account, on this assumption, of the chemical properties of 
this unit. 
“ Thus a unit of a# 2 | 4 (oxalic acid), together with a unit of water, is identical with the 
unit a#| 2 (formic acid) and the unit a#g 3 (hydrated carbonic acid) ; thus 
(«*? + #f ) +a|= a#f + a#f . 
“ Again, three units of a# 2 ! 4 , together with two units of water, are identical with one 
unit a# 2 ! 2 and four units a#! 3 ; thus 
3 (a#| 2 +#f) + 2ag= (a#|+#|)+ 4a*f.” 
When the difficulty was pressed home upon the Laputian philosophers, that they were 
mere dreamers, for that their chemists had worked with these gases for more than 100 
years and had never detected the presence in them of any one of these imaginary exist- 
ences #| 2 , a#£, a#£ 2 , they replied that while it was true that many interesting objects 
lay upon the surface, so that anybody could see them, there were others not to be found 
unless they were specially looked for, and that no chemist had ever yet looked for these 
things. Also the difficulties in the way of their separation might be very great. The 
densities of these gases would be so nearly the same that it would be hopeless to attempt 
to separate them by diffusion. As to the similarity, up to a certain point, of the chemical 
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