This view, which was specially supported by Gay-Lussac and Leopold Gmelin and accepted by Berzelius, necessitated that all acids were monobasic. The untenability of this theory was proved by Thomas Graham's investigation of the phosphoric acids; for he then showed that the ortho- (ordinary), pyroand metaphosphoric acids contained respectively 3, 2 and I molecules of " basic water " (which were replaceable by metallic oxides) and one molecule of phosphoric oxide, P2 05.
As stated under Phosphorus, phosphoric oxide, P 2 0 5, combines with water in three proportions to form H 2 O P 2 0 5 or HP03, metaphosphoric acid; 2H 2 O P 2 0 5 or H4P207, pyrophosphoric acid; and 3H 2 O P 2 0 5 or H 3 PO 4, orthophosphoric or ordinary phosphoric acid.
On long heating the syrup is partially converted into pyrophosphoric and metaphosphoric acids, but on adding water and boiling the ortho-acid is re-formed.
Metaphosphoric acid, HP0 3, is a monobasic acid which may be regarded as derived from orthophosphoric acid by the abstraction of one molecule of water, thus H 3 PO 4 - H 2 O = HP0 3; its constitution is therefore (HO)P0 2.
Metaphosphoric acid can be distinguished from the other two acids by its power of coagulating albumen, and by not being precipitated by mag nesium and ammonium chlorides in the presence of ammonia.