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Also, with an acid capable of, or possessing a similar large absorptive faculty for bases, we have possibilities of the formation of salts of various degrees of basicity, according to the smaller or larger degree of satisfaction given to the molecule of such acid by the addition of a base.
Such other salts which are decomposed more or less readily are termed "unstable," but the terms are of course only comparative. Now let us consider a di- or bi-basic acid. The hydrogen atoms are in this case an index of the basicity of the acid, and accordingly the fully saturated sodium salt is Na SO or neutral, or better normal, sulphate of soda.
We have now learned that acids are as the antipodes to alkalis or bases, and that the two may combine to form products which may be neutral or may have a preponderance either of acidity or of basicity in short, they may yield neutral, acid, or basic salts. I must try to give you a yet clearer idea of these three classes of salts.
An example of a tribasic acid is phosphoric acid, H PO , and here we may have three different classes of salts of three various degrees of basicity or base-saturation. We may have the first step of basicity due to combination with soda, NaH PO , or monosodium phosphate, the second step, Na HPO , or disodium phosphate, and the third, and final step, Na PO , or trisodium phosphate.
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