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ON THE VOLATILITY OF FIXED SALTS. 
ART. LVI. — ON THE VOLATILITY OF FIXED SALTS IN THE 
VAPOR OF WATER, AND ON SOME OF THE PURPOSES TO 
WHICH THIS PROPERTY MAY BE APPLIED. 
Being a Report by Messrs. Foy, Bussy and Hurant, on a Memoir. 
By M. Larocque. 
One of the most remarkable facts which the study of 
chemistry presents to us, is that of the volatility of certain 
essentially fixed substances, under the influence of the 
vapour of liquids in which these substances are dissolved. 
One of the oldest, and perhaps one of the most curious, facts 
of this class, is that presented by boracic acid. This acid, 
which is one of the most fixed bodies we know of, is vola- 
tilized in considerable quantity by the vapors escaping from 
the lagoons or muddy swamps of Tuscany, in the waters 
of which it exists naturally in solution. For some time this 
fact, which from its singularity might have been expected 
to attract the attention and investigation of chemists, passed 
unnoticed. It was only towards the year 1825, that M. 
Vogel made several experiments on this subject, and proved 
that boracic acid dissolved by alcohol, became volatilized 
in the vapors of this liquid. In 1830, M. Saladin, chemist 
at Orleans, showed in a very interesting paper, that arse- 
nious acid, corrosive sublimate, hydrochlorate, arseniateand 
oxalate of ammonia, sulphur, lime, morphia, brucia, and 
veratria, were volatile under the influence of the vapors of 
water, alcohol, and ether. Since this period, we are not 
aware of anything having been published on this subject. 
Nevertheless, in 1846, M. Simonin, of Nancy, read before 
the Society of Medicine of that town, a paper, in which he 
proved that a great number of fixed bodies, both organic 
and inorganic, were capable of being volatilized in aqueous 
vapors ; we do not know anything further respecting this 
paper, which was not printed. 
