26S 
ON AQUA REGIA. 
may displace the hydrogen without being able to show that 
this acid acts the part of a simple body. 
On the Constitution of the Hyponitric Jicid. 
36. Comparing the property of nitrous acid to combine 
with sulphuric acid, with that of the said acid to form with 
nitric acid hyponitric acid, and considering the fact that the 
latter acids may be decomposed by bases, Berzelius at first 
supposed that these combinations are composed of nitrous 
and nitric acids. 
37. When H. Rose, however, was believed to have pre- 
pared the sulphate of oxide of nitrogen, the Swedish 
chemist, in accordance with the German, considered the 
hyponitric acid of a constitution analogous with that in 
question. Both these views not well agreeing with the 
laws of multiple proportions, it remains to ascertain whether 
the hyponitric acid is a particular stage of oxidation of 
nitrogen. 
38. If from motives on which the first hypothesis is based, 
the hyponitric acid is composed according to N+S, the 
nitrous acid ought to consist of 2N+N, owing to the influ- 
ence which an excess of oxide of nitrogen has on nitric 
acid, and to the property of the acid formed in this reaction, 
by which, on being put together with water, it may be re- 
solved into the binary combinations of which it was formed. 
The nitrous acid, however, in contact with the hydrochloric 
acid, forms no chlorine. It, therefore, contains no nitric 
acid, from which we may conclude that the hyponitric also 
contains none. 
39. If the hyponitric acid would be composed according 
to formula N+2N, then, by the action of hydrochloric acid 
on a solution of this acid in concentrated sulphuric acid, 
oxide of nitrogen ought to be disengaged, which, however, 
does not occur. 
40. The question may be resolved in another manner, by 
