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EXPERIMENT I. 
This experimentalist first mixed the oxygenated muriatic acid gad * with 
water, and cresses (the Lepidktm sativum of Linmeud) were immersed in 
it, and these shewed signs of germination at the end of mx hours. 
EXPERIMENT II. 
The same being treated in a similar manner in common water, did not 
exhibit their germs until the end of thirty hours. 
These experiments were made at the temperature of from 5 7 ° to 6 0°. 
Obs. The action of the oxygenated water was immediately shewn by an 
enormous quantity of air-bubbles, which covered the surface of the seeds: a 
phenomenon not exhibited in common air till after thirty or forty minutes. 
EXPERIMENT III. 
In the summer of 1796, Humboldt began a new series of experiments, 
and found that by an increased degree of heat, the oxygenated water still 
more remarkably accelerated the process of germination. 
The temperature was raised to 88 ° of Fahrenheit. 
* All acids are combinations of radicals, or acidifiable substances, different in each species, with 
oxygen , which is the same in all: whence it follows, that their Common properties, their cha¬ 
racters as acids, depend on oxygen; —their particular propei'ties , their specific characters arise 
from their radicals. 
Each radical may be also contemplated in four states. 
1st, As containing very little oxygen, not sufficient to impart to it the nature of an acid, and in this 
it is nothing more than an oxyd ; such is sulphur coloured red or brown, by exposure to air, and a 
degree of heat inadequate to produce combustion. 
2dly, Containing more oxygen than in the preceding case, and enough to become an acid, though 
weak, when it is called the sulphureous acid. 
3dly, Possessing still more oxygen than in the second instance, and having acquired powerful 
acid properties, then the termination is not in ous, but in ic, and it is then styled the sulphuric acid. 
4thly Conjoined with a still larger dose of oxygen, when instead of the last termination, the term 
oxygenated is used. 
Thus the character of the muriatic acid, gaseous or fluid, is its having a pungent smell, unalter¬ 
able by any known combustible substance, on the contrary attracting oxygen from several burnt, or 
oxygenated, bodies, particularly from metallic oxyds, and thus becoming oxygenated muriatic acid. 
The oxygenated muriatic acid is remarkable for these properties, its greenish yellow appearance; 
its power of divesting vegetable substances of all colour; burning and inflaming most combustible sub¬ 
stances; and forming with potash a salt, which rapidly sets fire to heated inflammable substances; and 
affords the purest vital air known. 
