BY DR. HARE. 
113 
distinguished from any other binary compound? When 
the discordant group of substances which have been enu- 
merated under this name is contemplated, is it not evident 
that no definition of them can.be founded on community of 
properties; and by the advocates of the new doctrine, com- 
position has been made the object of definition, instead of 
being the basis; thus, agreeably to them, a compound is 
not a salt, because it is made of certain elements; but, on 
the contrary, an element, whether simple or compound, 
belongs to the class of salt radicals, because it produces a 
salt. Since sulphur, with four atoms of oxygen, SO 4 , pro- 
duces a salt with a metal, it must be deemed a salt radical. 
28. In proof that the double chlorides are not united in a 
way to justify the opinion adopted by Bonsdorff, Thomson, 
myself, and others, it is alleged by Graham, " that in such 
compounds the characters of the constituent salts are 
very little affected by their state of union." 
29. This allegation being, in the next page, admitted to 
be inapplicable in the case of the double cyanides; an effort 
is made to get over this obstacle, by suggesting the exist- 
ence of another compound radical. But the allegation of 
the author is erroneous as respects various double haloid 
salts, especially the fluosilicates, the fluoborates, fluozirconi- 
ates, the chloroplatinates, chloroiridiates, chloroosmiates, 
chloropalladiates, &c, all of them compounds in which the 
constituent fluorides and chlorides exist in a state of ener- 
getic combination by which they are materially altered as 
to their state of existence. 
30. Evidently the word salt has been so used, or rather 
so abused, that it is impossible to define it, either by a resort 
to properties or composition; and I conceive, therefore, that 
to make it a ground of abandoning terms which are suscep- 
tible of definition, and which have long been tacitly used 
by chemists in general, in obedience to such definition, 
would be "a retrograde movement in the science." I 
hope Dr. Kane will pardon me for employing the language 
