ON CHEMICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
11 
of atoms in a compound. Certainly nothing was more foreign 
to my thoughts. 
It is assumed by Berzelius that the saturation of the fluo- 
base of potassium by fluohydric acid, cannot be considered as 
analogous to the saturation of the oxybase of potassium by 
sulphuric acid; because the resulting compound is to the taste* 
in one case neutral, in the other sour. In reply I suggested 
that if the salidity of the biborates and bicarbonates was 
not to be questioned on account of their alkaline taste, nor that 
of the protochloride of tin on account of its sourness, it was 
not consistent that the pretensions to salidity of the fluohydrate 
of the fluobase of potassium should be denied on account of its 
sour taste. I will now add that if the fluosilicate of potassium 
be a double salt, the fluoride of silicon one of its two constitu- 
ents must be a simple salt, and yet it is sour. If a simple salt 
may be sour, why may not a double salt have this attribute; and 
how in fact can its presence be inconsistent with salidity ? Is 
not the absence of this characteristic in silica and tannin, and 
many other acids, as much against their claims to acidity, as 
its presence in other compounds is an objection to their asso- 
ciation with saline bodies. It is considered by Berzelius an 
objection to the views which I have espoused, that the halo- 
gen bodies, while forming acids with various metallic ra- 
dicals which oxygen does not acidify, do not form acids with 
sulphur, phosphorus, and arsenic which oxygen does acidify; 
yet what is there in this, more difficult to reconcile with the 
established results of chemical combinations, than in the 
fact that oxygen forms with sulphur, phosphorus, and arsenic, 
strong acids, with hydrogen water; while with hydrogen the 
halogen bodies all form compounds which Berzelius de- 
scribes as having the highest pretensions to acidity. The 
highly active acid properties of the fluorides of boron and 
silicon, would lead us to expect similar compounds to be form- 
ed by the same radicals, with the other halogen bodies, contrary 
to experience. Chemistry makes us acquainted with many 
similar discordances. How is it that oxygen forms aeriform 
compounds with an extremely fixed body in the instance of 
