292 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART.XLVIII.— ON THE BLEACHING COMPOUNDS OF CHLO- 
RINE. By M. Martins, professor of chemistry, L T niversity of Lou- 
vain. 
[Translated by William W. Smith.'] 
In January 1834, I addressed to the Royal Academy of 
Sciences and Belles-Lettres of Brussels, a memoir on the solu- 
ble chlorides of oxides, in which, after having discussed the 
relative worth of several processes recommended for the pre- 
paration of chlorate of potassa,* I endeavoured to prove that 
the bleaching chlorides of oxides ought to be considered sim- 
ple compounds of chlorine with oxibases. 
A short time after, M. Balard of Montpellier having also 
investigated the composition of these chlorides, arrived at re- 
sults which induced him to conclude that these compounds 
were mixtures of metallic chlorides and hypochlorites, salts of 
an oxacid of chlorine, to which the chlorides owed their dis- 
tinguishing properties. This was a confirmation of the opi- 
nion first advanced by Berzelius, and adopted by many cele- 
brated chemists. This opinion was at first only founded on 
the analogy thought to exist between the reactions of chlorine 
and sulphur with the alkaline oxides, and among the experi- 
ments adduced by Berzelius in support of it, there is not one 
which cannot be as well explained by the old theory accord- 
ing to which these compounds are unstable combinations of 
chlorine with metallic oxides. This I think was proved in 
* I then proved that the formation of chlorate of potassa, by passing a 
stream of chlorine through a concentrated solution of caustic potassa, was 
merely the result of a spontaneous decomposition of the chloride of potas- 
sa previously formed, a decomposition to be attributed solely to the inso- 
lubility of the chlorate resulting from it; and that when it is wished to 
prepare chlorate of potassa by double decomposition from chloride of lime, 
and chloride of potassium, the chloride of lime should not (as Liebig has 
recommended) be heated until it loses all its bleaching power ; for by 
this process two thirds of the chloride of lime, would be converted into 
chloride of calcium, which can have no agency in the production of the 
chlorate. 
