It is monobasic and yields salts which only crystallize with great difficulty; when liberated, from these salts by a mineral acid it forms a syrupy nonvolatile mass.
Molybdenum trisulphide, MoS3, is obtained by saturating a solution of an alkaline molybdate with sulphuretted hydrogen and adding a mineral acid.
If excess of a mineral acid be added to a solution of an alkaline thiogermanate a white precipitate of germanium disulphide, GeS2, is obtained.
Both of these statements are correct when the powerful mineral acid and bases are considered, exceptions only arising when weak acids and bases are employed.
Geoffroy in 1741 pointed out that the fat or oil recovered from a soap solution by neutralization with a mineral acid differs from the original fatty substance by dissolving readily in alcohol, which is not the case with ordinary fats and oils.