Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/63

48 nearly-all the fluid may, however, be condensed again; but it passes slightly coloured, and the tube and crystal are blackened on the surface by charcoal. I am uncertain whether this decomposition ought not to be attributed rather to the action of the glass at this high temperature than to the heat alone.

It is not soluble in water, but remains at the bottom of it in drops, for many weeks, without any action.

It is soluble in alcohol and ether, and the solutions burn with a greenish flame, evolving fumes of muriatic acid.

It is soluble in the volatile and fixed oils. The volatile oils containing it burn with the emission of fumes of muriatic acid. When the solutions of it in the fixed oils are heated, they do not blacken or evolve fumes of muriatic acid. It is therefore probable, that when this happens with the solution of the per chloride in fixed oils, it is from its conversion by the heat into protochloride and the liberation of chlorine.

It is not soluble in alkaline solutions, nor is any action apparent after several days. Neither is it at all soluble in, or affected by, strong nitric, muriatic, or sulphuric acids.

Solutions of silver do not act on it.

Oxygen decomposes it at high temperatures, forming carbonic oxide or acid, and liberating chlorine.

Chlorine dissolves in it in considerable quantity, but has no further action, or only a very slow one, in common daylight; on exposure to solar light, a different result takes place. I have only had two days, and those in the middle of November, on which I could expose the protochloride of carbon in atmospheres of chlorine to solar light; and hence the conversion of the whole of the protochloride was not perfect; but at the end of those two days the retorts containing the substances were lined with crystals, which, on examination under the microscope, proved to he quadrangular plates, resembling those of the per chloride of carbon. There were also some rhomboidal crystals here and there. After the formation of these crystals, there was considerable absorption in the retort; hence chlorine had combined; and the gas which remained was chlorine unmixed with anything else, except a slight impurity. The solid body, on examination, was found to be volatile, soluble in alcohol, precipitable by water, and had the smell and other properties of per chloride of carbon. Hence, though heat in