BY DR. HARE. 
217 
93. Would not a more comprehensive and correct idea 
be presented by the following language? — 
94. From any combination of an acid with a base, either 
the base or its radical may be replaced by any other radical 
or base, between which and the other elements present, 
there is a higher affinity. Of course from acids called hy- 
dra ted, from their holding an atom of basic water, either 
this base, or its radical (hydrogen,) may be replaced by any 
other competent base or radical. 
95. The premises being manifestly fallacious, still more 
so is the subsequent allegation, that in consequence of the 
hydrated acids being compounds formed with hydrogen, 
quote here the language which has been held by us respectively on this 
subject. 
Treating of hydrogen, Dr. Kane uses the following words: — "It was 
at one time supposed that it shared with oxygen the power of generat- 
ing acids; and as sulphur, chlorine, iodine, cyanogen, &c. , formed one 
class by combining with oxygen, so they formed a second class, called 
hydracids, by entering into union with hydrogen." ****** 
In the year 1832 I proved this view to be incorrect, that all the pro- 
perties of the compounds of hydrogen combined to show that it was an 
eminently electro-positive body, that it took place along with iron, man- 
ganese, and zinc. ******* (« These views have been still 
farther corroborated by the researches of Graham." ****** 
There rests now, no doubt, in the minds of philosophical chemists, that 
hydrogen is a metal enormously volatile. 
This justifies the following language held in my letter on the Berze- 
lian nomenclature. 
'"I am of opinion that the employment of the word hydracid, as co- 
ordinate with oxacid, must tend to convey the erroneous idea, with 
which, in opposition to his own definition, the author seems to have 
been imbued, that hydrogen in the one class, plays the same part as 
oxygen in the other. But in reality, the former is eminently a com- 
bustible, and of course the radical, by his own definition." 
So entirely have I concurred in considering hydrogen as an aeriform 
metal, that, for more than twenty years, 1 have, in my lectures, accounted 
for che amalgamation of mercury when electrolysed in contact with sal 
ammoniac, by inferring ammonia to be a gaseous alloy of two metallic! 
ingredients, hydrogen and nitrogen being both aeriform metals. 
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