Baumé found, that when all the sulphur is expelled which will be driven off in the heat, a certain portion will still remain, and not burn away at a lower temperature than will consume the charcoal; so that to the last the burning residue will smell strongly sulphurous. This retained portion of sulphur he finds, by the results of many other experiments, to be very uniformly about one-twenty-fourth part of the whole sulphur employed; whence, for all common purposes, an adequate correction may be made, by estimating that the slow weak combustion of the residue, after the nitre has been extracted, destroys only 23/24ths of the sulphur instead of the whole. On trying to separate them by an alkaline solution, he found some of the sulphur to remain undisturbed, and still adhering to the charcoal. In consequence of this circumstance, it is recommended, to insure a perfect analysis, to separate the nitre in the first place from gunpowder, by hot water, and to treat the residue with nitric acid. After the sulphur is acidified, the addition of nitrate or muriate of barytes will separate, effectually, the sulphuric acid from the fluid, and form a sulphate of barytes; this being collected, washed, dried, and weighed, will give the quantity of sulphuric acid, and of sulphur in the acid, by the well known proportion of acid in the salt, and of sulphur in the acid. One hundred parts of sulphate of barytes, when perfectly dry, indicate fourteen and a half parts of sulphur; or, which is the same, according to Chenevix, one hundred and fifty-five grains denote twenty-two and a half grains of sulphur. The observations of M. Champy and professor Proust on _humid powder_, seem to place the quantity of water absorbed, at 8, 10, and 14 per cent. These proportions, it is evident, depend greatly on the quality of the nitre; and if deliquescent salts exist in any quantity, the absorption, and consequently the increase of weight must be greater. Chemical examination will readily determine this fact.