Volatile vitriolic acid

In order to fulfill all the conditions stipulated by Stahl, one could make this operation in the palm of one s hand by dissolving vitriolated tartar in water, taking the solution in one hand, and pouring over it a few drops of spirit of vitriol. The volatile vitriolic acid was separated and elevated into the air the salt of tartar remained in solution, joined to fixed vitriolic acid. 

In the experiment he found that a mixture of 4 vols. of hepatic gas and 4 vols. of dephlogisticated air gave 2 vols. of volatile sulphureous acid (sulphur dioxide). Austin had found that the solution of sulphur in light inflammable air neither contracts nor expands it , hence 4 vols. of hepatic gas contain 4 vols. of hydrogen, which require at least 2I vols. of oxygen. Of the rest, 2 vols. burnt the sulphur to sulphur dioxide and vol. was used to burn nitrogen as an impurity. Hence the 2 vols. of volatile vitriolic acid (SO2) contain 2 of ox n. 

Higgins made use of dis ams and symbols in discussing the supposed forces between particles. The use of the initial letters of names as symbols (emphasised by Reilly and McSweeney and Wheeler ) was not consistent I stands both for iron and inflammable air, and volatile vitriolic acid (a compound) is V. Higgins also has a symbol for oil, and did not confine the single letters to symbols for elements. 

GeoflFroy went on to describe how he distilled green vitriol in a cracked crucible so that the Volatile sulphureous acid spirit of vitriol [sulfur dioxide] could escape, all this following the procedure of Stahl. GeoflFroy advised his readers who wanted this explained to consult Stahls original paper in the Journal of Halle in Saxony.Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) is the inventor of the phlogiston theory that we will be centrally concerned with a little later. This reference to Stahl in 1713 is the earliest that I have found in the Paris Academy Memoires. 

A philosophical spirit of wine prepared by repeatedly distilling alcohol with oil of vitriol must have contained ether. Volatile vitriol of Venus (copper acetate), obtained in blue crystals from a solution of verdigris in distilled vinegar, yields on distillation and rectification a colourless spirit of Venus (esprit de Venus), i.e. concentrated acetic acid. Spirit of Saturn is distilled from sugar of lead (sucre ou sel de Satume). The distillation of amber yields a spirit, an oil, and volatile salt (succinic acid) of acid taste, soluble in water, which can be sublimed in white crystals. One of Le Fevre s special preparations was a volatile salt of vipers obtained by distillation, and he extols the virtues of tobacco. ... 

When zinc, iron, and tin were dissolved in hot undiluted acid of vitriol they evolved uninflammable vapours smelling strongly of the volatile sulphureous acid (sulphur dioxide), and in this case their phlogiston unites to the acid for it is well known, that the volatile sulphureous acid consists of the plain vitriolic acid united to phlogiston . In nitrous (nitric) acid the metals evolved red fumes, produced by the phlogiston uniting with the acid. In a footnote Cavendish says if oil of vitriol be distilled, from sulphur, the liquor which comes over, will be the volatile sulphureous acid. ... 

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