Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/168

 from whence we may deduce the following eq.

The combination of the oil with copper was also subjected to analysis. This compound was obtained by agitating together an aqueous solution of the oil with freshly prepared quite pure hydrated oxide of copper, taking care that the oil should be in excess; and the green compound thus obtained was dried at + 160°. At this temperature the combination is not decomposed, which is evident, as the oil may again be obtained unaltered on the addition of an acid. By other means, by double decomposition for instance, the combination with copper may be obtained, but not quite pure, as it then contains slight traces of the acid which was united with the copper, even if excess of alkali be employed as a precipitant.

Also by burning the cupreous combination in contact with the air, 0-130 of the compound yielded 0-03719 oxide of copper 29.68 copper.

If now in the cupreous combination the copper is considered to have been in the metallic state we obtain

which in eq.

These experiments confirm the truth of the above-mentioned view, that the oil is a hydracid with a ternary base, and they likewise show that the action of this hydracid with metals is exactly the same as that of those which were before known.

This view receives still further confirmation by the fact that when