444 
SECOND REPORT-1832. 
The object of Bonsdorf’s papers is not merely to afford a 
simpler theoretical explanation of the composition of the salts 
of chlorine, iodine, &c., hut to destroy the distinction hitherto 
made between this class of simple substances and that which 
comprehends oxygen, sulphur, selenium and tellurium; to place 
in short the chlorides, iodides, &c., on the same footing with the 
oxides and acids. To establish the complete analogy between 
the sulphur and oxygen salts, we have seen, that Berzelius 
showed the existence of sulphur acids agreeing precisely in 
composition with the oxygen acids, the latter element being 
merely replaced by the formerthat suites of acids were formed 
by sulphur with the same metal, as is the case with oxygen ; 
and that in some cases the analogy was so close that metals, 
which like tellurium form weak acids with oxygen, gave corre¬ 
sponding weak acids with sulphur. But in the chlorides we 
have no such analogies. There are no acid chlorides corre¬ 
sponding to the oxygen acids, no suites of acids with the same 
base corresponding for instance with the oxygen acids of arsenic 
or antimony. The chlorides which Bonsdorf calls acids have 
mercury, gold, platinum and palladium for their bases, with 
none of which does oxygen form an acid. 
If we adopt the view of the chlorides advanced by Bonsdorf, 
then it must be entirely as a matter of theory. If we think it 
explains their nature more simply than the method of regarding 
them as double salts, we may adopt his theory and his nomen¬ 
clature, but we shall still have as many families of simple sub¬ 
stances and as many families of salts. Oxygen and sulphur 
possessing decidedly different properties must still belong to a 
class of simple bodies different from that to which chlorine and 
iodine belong; and the oxygen and sulphur salts, being equally 
distinguished from the double chlorides and iodides both in the 
nature of the metallic bases they contain, and the relative pro¬ 
portions of the several elements, must also constitute two very 
different natural families*. It will be matter of consideration 
for chemists whether the advantages likely to be derived from 
the adoption of Bonsdorf’s theory,—and, as simplifying the 
arrangement of saline compounds, they are not small,—will corn- 
alumina and ammonia, nickel and ammonia, and zinc and ammonia, in which, 
according to Bonsdorf, one chloride must act as an acid, and the other as a base, 
and yet these six chlorides are all bases in his salts. 
* If we were to lay it down as a principle, that compounds of two elements 
shall be considered as either acids or bases, then the theory of Bonsdorf cannot 
be rejected; if we take the properties of these compounds as the elements of 
our conclusion, then analogy alone must be our guide,—and hitherto that has 
been considered sufficient to place the chlorides among the salts. 
