Inquiries respecting the constitu­tion of salts. Of oxalates, nitrates, phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides

Abstract

The results which the author had obtained from his former experiments, and of which he communicated an account to the Royal Society, suggested to him the probability that the law with re­spect to water being a constituent of sulphates, would extend also to any hydrated acid and the magnesian salt of that acid. As he had already found that the sulphate of water is constituted like the sulphate of magnesia, so he now finds the oxalate of water to re­semble the oxalate of magnesia, and the nitrate of water to resem­ble the nitrate of magnesia. His researches render it probable that the correspondence between water and the magnesian class of oxides extends beyond their character as bases; and that in certain subsalts of the magnesian class of oxides, the metallic oxide replaces the water of crystallization of the neutral salt, and discharges a func­tion which was thought peculiar to water. In the formation of a double sulphate, the author finds that a certain degree of substitu­tion or displacement occurs; such as the displacement of an atom of water pertaining to the sulphate of magnesia, by an atom of sulphate of potash, to form the double sulphate of magnesia and pot­ash. The same kind of displacement appears to occur, likewise, in the construction of double oxalates; and the application of this principle enables us to understand the constitution both of the double and superoxalates, and to explain the mode of their deriva­tion. The author then proceeds to apply these principles to the analy­sis of the oxalates; and 1st, of the oxalate of water, or hydrated oxalic acid; 2ndly, of oxalate of zinc; 3rdly, of oxalate of magnesia; 4thly, of oxalate of lime; 5thly, of oxalate of barytes; 6thly, of oxalate of potash; 7thly, of binoxalate of potash; 8thly, of quadroxalate of potash; 9thly, of oxalate of ammonia; 10thly, of oxalate of soda; llthly, of binoxalate of soda; and lastly, of the double oxalates, such as, 1st, oxalate of potash and copper; 2ndly, oxalate of chromium and potash; 3rdly, oxalate of peroxide of iron and potash ;and 4thly, of oxalate of peroxide of iron and soda.