SUBJECTS muriatic acid, muriates

Even as he pursued these practical objectives Watt was still preoccupied with larger chemical questions. Indeed dephlogisticated muriatic acid air could not fail to stimulate in Watt thoughts about dephlogisticated airs in general, on which he had done so much work before, and which lay at the heart of key issues in chemistry. Probably through Berthollet and Hassenfratz, Watt became concerned with the new chemical nomenclature being developed in France. This led him to write a substantial chemical essay on the subject, first discussed in detail by David Larder.96... 

Muriatic acid and marine acid were synonymous terms for what is now called hydrochloric acid, thus signifying its relation to the sodium chloride contained in brine (Latin muria) or sea water (Latin mare). Both names were strongly criticized by H. Davy in a scathing paper entitled Some reflections on the nomenclature of oxymuriatic compounds in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. for 1811 To call a body which is not known to contain oxygen, and which cannot contain muriatic acid, oxymuriatic acid, is contrary to the principles of that nomenclature in which it is adopted and an alteration of it seems necessary to assist the progress of the discussion, and to diffuse just ideas on the subject. If the great discoverer of this substance (i.e. Scheele) had signified it by any simple name it would have been proper to have referred to it but... 

Determination of the concentration of acid in human gastric juice waited upon the ability to collect a pure sample. Until such samples could be collected from fistulous subjects, some persons sampled their own gastric juice by means of a sponge attached to a string, and others analyzed vomitus. Sir Astley Cooper gave William Prout, the man who established the presence of hydrochloric acid in the gastric contents of animals, fluid ejected from the human stomach in severe cases of dyspepsia. Prout found muriatic acid in a free or unsaturated state in concentrations of 4.28,4.63, and 5.13 grains per pint. ... 

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