NOTICE FROM DR. ROBERT HARE. 
117 
Any acid, having a stronger affinity for the alkaline base 
than the hyponitrous acid, will answer to generate this ether. 
Acetic acid not only extricates, but appears to combine with 
it, forming apparently a hyponitro-acetic ether. 
I observed some years ago that when olefiantgas is inflamed 
with an inadequate supply of oxygen, carbon is deposited, 
while the resulting gas occupies double the space of the mix- 
ture before explosion. Of this I conceive I have discovered 
the explanation. By a great number of experiments, per- 
foremd with the aid of my barometer gage Eudiometer, I have 
ascertained that if during the explosion of the gaseous ele- 
ments of water any gaseous or volatile inflammable matter be 
present, instead of condensing there will be a permanent gas 
formed by the union of the nascent water with the inflamma- 
ble matter. Thus two volumes of oxygen, with four of hydro- 
gen, and one of olefiant gas, gave six volumes of permanent 
gas, which burns and smells like light carburetted hydrogen. 
The same quantity of the pure hydrogen and oxygen with 
half a volume of hydric ether, gives on the average the same 
residue. One volume of the new hyponitrous ether under 
like circumstances produced five volumes of gas. 
An analogous product is obtained when the same aqueous 
elements are inflamed in the presence of an essential oil. 
With oil of turpentine a gas was obtained weighing per hun- 
dred cubic inches 16 T 5 ^- grains, which is nearly the gravity of 
light carburetted hydrogen. The gas obtained from olefiant 
gas, or from ether, weighed on the average, per the same bulk, 
13j 5 o g rams - The olefiant gas which I used weighed per hun- 
dred cubic inches only 30 T 5 F grains. Of course if, perse, ex- 
panded into six volumes, it could have weighed only one-sixth 
of that weight, or little over five grains per hundred cubic 
inches. There can therefore be no doubt that the gas obtain- 
ed by the means in question, is chiefly constituted of water, 
or of its elements'in the same proportion of two volumes of hy- 
drogen to one of oxygen. 
' With a volume of the new ether, six volumes of the mix- 
ture of hydrogen and oxygen give on the average about five 
