BLEACHING COMPOUNDS OF CHLORINE. 
305 
the decomposition of the chlorite or hypochlorite, formed ac- 
cording to Balard, at the same time as the chloride, and from its 
instability unable to remain longer in solution, he considering 
the bleaching chloride of oxide a mixture of metallic chloride 
and chlorite; but it is more natural to admit that, by the action 
of the nitrate of silver, there is formed a bleaching chloride of 
oxide of silver, which, at the moment of its formation, is con- 
verted into chloride and chlorate, owing to the insolubility of 
the chloride, in the same way that chloride of potassa is de- 
composed into chloride and chlorate, owing to the insolubility 
of the chlorate. 
Thus far, then, nothing has been adduced, to prove that the 
bleaching chlorides are mixtures of hypochlorites and metallic 
chlorides; on the contrary, facts seem to show that they are 
compounds of chlorine and basic oxides. Besides, nothing 
forbids us to admit the existence of such compounds; for it is 
not yet established that sulphur, the action of which on the 
oxides suggested to Berzelius his theory of the chlorides of 
oxides, cannot combine with oxides. I am induced to believe 
that sulphurets of oxides do exist, from the fact that precipi- 
tated hydrate of sulphur, at a temperature of from 10° to 20° 
Cen., dissolves in a solution of potassa or soda, which becomes 
coloured, and from which sulphur (not bisulphuretted hydro- 
gen) is precipitated by hydrochloric acid, and without evolu- 
tion of sulphuretted hydrogen. Hence, it is probable, that all 
alkaline sulphurets made in the wet, may contain sulphurets 
of oxides. The polysulphurets of potassium or calcium, pre- 
pared in this manner, should not be used to obtain bisulphu- 
retted hydrogen; for the precipitate produced in them by hy- 
drochloric acid consists of a mixture of much hydrate of 
sulphur, with a small quantity of bisulphuretted hydrogen- — 
while the precipitate obtained from the polysulphuret made 
by dissolving sulphur in a monosulphuret of potassium, result- 
ing from the reduction of the sulphate by charcoal, is pure 
bisulphuretted hydrogen, without admixture of an appreciable 
quantity of sulphur. This difference in the results, may partly 
be attributed to the presence of hyposulphites in the sulphurets, 
VOL. II— NO. iv. 39 
