no smell, and which mixes in large proportion with water. With muriatic acid, the direct reverse takes place; an additional saturation with oxygen renders it more volatile, of a more penetrating odour, less miscible with water, and diminishes its acid properties. We were at first inclined to have denominated these two degrees of saturation in the same manner as we had done with the acid of sulphur, calling the less oxygenated muriatous acid, and that which is more saturated with oxygen muriatic acid: But, as this latter gives very particular results in its combinations, and as nothing analogous to it is yet known in chemistry, we have left the name of muriatic acid to the less saturated, and give the latter the more compounded appellation of oxygenated muriatic acid.
Although the base or radical of the acid which is extracted from nitre or saltpetre be better known, we have judged proper only to modify its name in the same manner with that of the muriatic acid. It is drawn from nitre, by the intervention of sulphuric acid, by a process similar to that described for extracting the muriatic acid, and by means of the same apparatus (Pl. IV. Fig. 1.). In proportion as the acid passes over, it is in part condensed in the baloon or recipient, and the rest is absorbed by the water contained in the bottles L, L, L, L; the water becomes first green,
