Note 18 — Chapter XX · SULPHUR, SELENIUM, AND TELLURIUM

If sulphuretted hydrogen escapes from a fine orifice into the air, it will burn when lighted, and be transformed into sulphurous anhydride and water. But if it burns in a limited supply of air—for instance, when a cylinder is filled with it and lighted—then only the hydrogen burns, which has, judging from the amount of heat developed in its combustion and from all its properties, a greater affinity for oxygen than sulphur. In this respect the combustion of sulphuretted hydrogen resembles that of hydrocarbons.