OXYGEN  IN  A  NASCENT  STATE. 
77 
in  a  nascent  state,  and  which  the  latter  [usually]  ceases  to  pos- 
sess immediately  it  is  isolated  from  its  combinations :  an  inac- 
tivity the  more  characteristic,  since  it  becomes  a  property  also 
of  the  odorous  gas,  when  the  latter  has  been  subjected  to  the 
influence  of  heat  or  of  light,  or  to  the  contact  of  certain  sub- 
stances with  which  it  forms  no  union.  It  is  thus  that  arsenious 
acid,  unalterable  by  ordinary  oxygen,  is  directly  oxydized  by 
free  nascent  oxygen,  in  the  same  manner  as  oxygen  itself  ope- 
rates in  the  state  in  which  it  exists  in  nitric  acid  or  in  water 
decomposed  by  chlorine. 
The  case  is  the  same  with  hydrochloric  acid,  which,  under- 
going no  alteration  from  contact  with  ordinary  gaseous  oxygen 
or  from  the  nascent  gas  if  previously  heated  up  to  176  Fahr., 
acquires  on  the  contrary,  the  power  of  dissolving  gold  in  the 
presence  of  nitric  acid  or  of  the  binoxides  of  barium,  manga- 
nese, lead,  &c,  or  of  certain  oxygenated  salts,  exactly  in  the 
same  manner  as  in  the  presence  of  free,  active  oxygen,  as  men- 
tioned above. 
Hence  the  idea  of  the  pre-existence  of  nascent  oxygen  in 
combination  is  that  which  I  wish  to  enforce  in  this  paper.  More 
over,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  ordinary  methods  era 
ployed  to  liberate  oxygen  are  scarcely  of  a  nature  to  favor  the 
emission  of  the  gas  in  its  primitive  state,  since  they  are  based 
upon  the  employment  of  certain  agents,  such  as  caloric,  light, 
catalytic  force,  capable  themselves  of  destroying  the  activity  of 
nascent  oxygen.  Thus,  it  appears  that  in  calcining  the  perox- 
ides of  manganese  or  of  barium,  or  the  various  oxygenated  salts, 
such  as  chlorates,  chromates,  &c,  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  from 
them  active  oxygen,  and  even  when  Priestly,  in  his  memorable 
experiment  of  the  1st  of  August,  1774,  succeeded  in  decompo- 
sing the  Mercurius  prcecipitatus  per  se  (binoxide  of  mercury)  by 
heating  it  in  the  burning  focus  of  a  lens,  he  could  but  set  at 
liberty  a  degenerated  principle,  and  the  gas  which  he  designated 
dephlogisticated  air,  which  name  Lavoisier,  upon  the  creation  of 
chemical  "language,  transformed  into  oxygen,  was  none  other 
than  the  hypothetical  oxygen  of  modern  chemists,  modified 
by  the  disturbing  forces  employed  at  that  period  by  the  illus- 
trious English  philosopher. — Pharm.  Jour.  Oct.  1st,  1855,  from 
Jour,  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chimie. 
