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177
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry
·
M. M. Pattison Muir
133
The
conclusions
regarding
the
composition
of
nitric
acid
drawn
by
Lavoisier
from
these
experiments
was,
that
"nitric
acid
is
nothing
else
than
nitrous
air,
combined
with
almost
its
own
volume
of
the
purest
part
of
atmospheric
air,
and
a
considerable
quantity
of
water."
Lavoisier
supposed
that
the
stages
in
the
complete
reaction
between
mercury
and
nitric
acid
were
these:
the
withdrawal
of
oxygen
from
the
acid
by
the
mercury,
and
the
union
of
the
compound
of
mercury
and
oxygen
thus
formed
with
the
constituents
of
the
acid
which
remained
when
part
of
its
oxygen
was
taken
away.
The
removal
of
oxygen
from
nitric
acid
by
the
mercury
produced
nitrous
air;
when
the
product
of
the
union
of
the
oxide
of
mercury
and
the
nitric
acid
deprived
of
part
of
its
oxygen
was
heated,
more
nitrous
air
was
given
off,
and
oxide
of
mercury
remained,
and
was
decomposed,
at
a
higher
temperature,
into
mercury
and
oxygen.
Lavoisier
thought
of
these
reactions
as
the
tearing
asunder,
by
mercury,
of
nitric
acid
into
definite
quantities
of
its
three
components,
themselves
distinct
substances,
nitrous
air,
water,
and
oxygen;
and
the
combination
of
the
mercury
with
a
certain
measurable
quantity
of
one
of
these
components,
namely,
oxygen,
followed
by
the
union
of
this
compound
of
mercury
and
oxygen
with
what
remained
of
the
components
of
nitric
acid.
Lavoisier
had
formed
a
clear,
consistent,
and
suggestive
mental
picture
of
chemical
changes.
He
thought
of
a
chemical
reaction
as
always
the
same
under
the
same
conditions,
as
an
action
between
a
fixed
and
measurable
quantity
of
one
substance,
having
definite
and
definable
properties,
with
fixed
and
measurable
quantities
of
other
substances,
the
properties
of
each
of
which
were
definite
and
definable.
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