Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/486

Rh intense to melt a wire of platina. The presence of carbon was also proved by the slow action of barytic-water and of lime-water on the oily ﬂuid, and consequent formation of carbonates of those earths.

When the authors endeavoured to determine the proportion in which the two constituents, carbon and sulphur, are united in this compound, considerable difﬁculties occurred from its volatility, and from the little aﬂinity which it appeared to possess for the generality of chemical agents. The danger of explosion was an obstacle to the oxidation of it by direct combustion; and where attempts were made to analyse it by means of nitro-muriatic acid, the result proved to be a new and curious compound, that gave rise to a separate course of experiment. By means of alkaline solutions a new and unequi- vocal proof was obtained of the presence of carbon; but the decom- position was too imperfect for the accurate determination of propor- tional quantities. Recourse was therefore had to distillation of the oil through red hot oxide of iron, by which means the carbon was converted into carbonic acid, and the sulphur partly retained in the state of a sulphuret, and partly converted into sulphurous acid gas. By careful examination of these products, and by repetition of the process with corresponding results, the proportion of the constituents was found to be 84-83 sulphur and 1517 carbon,-——a result which accords extremely well with the hypothesis of two atoms of sulphur to one atom of carbon; and since the quantities obtained in this analysis corresponded with the quantity submitted to examination, this agreement tended much to conﬁrm the opinion, that the com- pound does not contain any other element.

An appendix to this paper, written by Professor Benelius, alone, contains the details of two experiments, from which the above pro- portions of sulphur and carbon are determined; and a statement of certain laws of determinate proportions, from which the same infer- ence might be drawn.

The author’s observation is, that when two combustible bodies unite, the quantities of oxygen which they are disposed to absorb are either equal, or one is a simple multiple of the other. In the present case the quantity of oxygen necessary to convert the sulphur into sulphu- rous acid is so nearly double of that which would be requisite to convert the carbon into carbonic acid, that the result obtained by supposing that to be the real proportion would not differ by one third per cent. from the proportion gained by experiment.

If Mr. Dalton’s opinion be correct, that both the carbonic and sulphurous acids consist of one atom of base with two atoms of oxygen, then this sulphuret must contain two atoms of sulphur to one of carbon; but it is possible that carbonic oxide may contain two atoms of base to one of oxygen, and in that case carbonic acid must consist of one atom of each. If so, the sulphuret of carbon will accord with other sulphurets which contain one atom of sulphur to one of base. The author observes, however, that according to Sir H. Davy, there are other sulphurets consisting of two portions of sulphur to one of base; and accordingly 8. similar doubt occurs in