Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/99

84 into muriatic acid. It was then slightly heated, neutralized by pure nitric acid, precipitated by nitrate of silver, and the chloride of silver obtained and weighed.

The following is an experiment conducted in this way:—65 grains of the pressed crystals were put into the flask, and the ammonia added; at one time there was a faint smell of chloride of nitrogen for an instant at the mouth of the flask, and a little more ammonia was added. The next day 73.2 grs. of chloride of silver were obtained from the solution, and if this be considered as equivalent to 18 grs. of chlorine, then the 65 grs. of hydrate must have contained 47 grs. of water, or per cent.—

This nearly accords with 10 proportionals of water to 1 of chlorine, and I have chosen it because it gave the largest proportion of chlorine of any experiment I made. It is evident that any loss or error either in the drying the crystals, or in the conversion of the chlorine into muriatic acid by the ammonia, would tend to diminish the proportion of that element; and it is even possible that the above proportion of chlorine is under-rated, but I believe it to be near the truth. The mean of several other experiments gave—