DEUTOXIDE OP MERCURY IN WATER. 
259 
ART. XLIV. — SOLUBILITY OF THE DEUTOXIDE OF MER- 
CURY IN WATER. By R. F, Mobehand. 
The opinion expressed by some chemists, and especially 
by Donovan, Guibourt, and Thomson, that the deutoxide of 
mercury is slightly soluble in water, is contradicted by others, 
especially by Ure. We may presume that the first named 
chemists may have employed an oxide not entirely free from 
nitrate, which salt ought certainly to cause a partial solubility 
of the preparation. The most simple mode to resolve this 
question would be to employ the precipitate per se, that is 
to say, the red oxide of mercury, prepared by the action of 
heat upon pure mercury; but this oxide is no longer prepared, 
and it is very difficult and tedious to obtain it for one's self. 
Some deutoxide of mercury, perfectly pure, which I had 
prepared for this purpose, was heated strongly, constantly 
stirring it, so that a great part was decomposed into metallic 
mercury and oxygen; I then supposed that I had decomposed 
all the nitrate which it contained. 
The oxide thus treated was boiled in distilled water, and 
the decanted liquor was filtered. This liquor was very 
evidently colored brown by hydrosulphate of ammonia. 
This still took place, even after the oxide had been subjected 
to twenty successive ebullitions, and finally treated with a 
boiling solution of caustic potassa, and then carefully washed. 
There was always observed the brown color with hydro- 
sulphate of ammonia, and the green with the syrup of violets, 
of which the before named British chemists had spoken. 
These reactions could not be derived from a solution of a 
mercurial gas in the water, as had been pointed out by A. 
Wiggers, since they should then be different in their nature, 
and likewise because the quantity is too small, as the researches 
of Wiggers prove. 
NOTE ON THE ABOVE, BY M. E. BOUDET. 
The experiments of M. Marchand appeared to me to have 
demonstrated the solubility of the deutoxide of mercury in 
