Note 32 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
On this curious subject, and its history, see Bergman’s Dissert. de Phlog. quantitate in Metallis, 1764. Kirwan, On the Attractive Powers of Mineral Acids: Philosophical Transactions. Kier’s Experiments and Observations on the Dissolution of Metals in Acids: Phil. Trans. 1790.
From these valuable papers it will be seen that the peculiar states of iron had already attracted attention, particularly those “inactive conditions” noticed in a “Note sur la Manière d’agir de l’Acide nitrique sur le Fer, par J. F. W. Herschel,” Aug. 1833; and previously indicated by M. H. Braconnot, Sur quelques Propriétés de l’Acide nitrique, Annales de Chimie, vol. lii. p. 54. Reference should also be made to the Memoirs of Sir John Herschel, On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable Colours, &c.: Phil. Trans. vol. cxxxiii. p. 221; and On the Separation of Iron from other Metals: Phil. Trans. vol. cxi. p. 293; and several papers by Schönbein, in the Philosophical Magazine, from 1837.