166 
Book II. 
In alcohol. 
Divisible 
into, 
1. Incom 
bustible, or 
mineral; 
2. Combus 
tible, or 
ACIDS. 
Arsenic ............ 152 parts 
Citric. 133 
Oxalic ....... 50 
Gallic............. 8.4 
Boracic ............ 1.6 
Mucous ... 1.0 
Succinic 
1.0 
Suberic . 0.7 
Camphoric ......... 0.5 
Benzoic ........... 0.2 
Molybdic...... 0.1 
All the acids are more or less soluble in alcohol, ex 
cept phosphoric acid and the metallic'acids. The sul 
phuric, nitric, and oxy-muriatic, as we shall see after 
wards, have the property of decomposing alcohol. 
The acids differ from each other exceedingly in the 
changes which they undergo when exposed to the ac 
tion of heat. Some of them are incombustible ; others, 
on the contrary, are combustible. 
The incombustible acids have received the name of 
mineral acids, because they are obtained most abun 
dantly from the mineral kingdom. They are the acids 
which have been described in the first 15 Sections of 
this Chapter. All of them, as far as is known, contain 
a combustible basis combined with oxygen. The great 
er number of them can only be produced by combus 
tion or some equivalent process. Two of them, name 
ly, nitric and oxy-muriatic acids, are capable of support 
ing combustion, and it is not unlikely that this is the 
case also with arsenic acid. 
The combustible acids include all that have been de 
scribed in the preceding Sections, except the first 15. 
They are almost all either the products of vegetation,