66 



AMALGAM PRODUCED FROM AMMONIA. 



the uninflam- 

 mable result of 

 its combustion. 



The number 

 of chemical 

 elements 

 might be still 

 reduced. 



Difficulties 

 both in the 

 phlogistic and 

 antiphlogistic 

 hypotheses. 



Other hypotheses wight be formed upon the new electro- 

 chemical facts, in which still fewer elements than those al- 

 lowed in the antiphlogistic or phlogistic theory might be 

 maintained. Certain electrical states always coincide with 

 certain chemical states of bodies. Thus acids are uniformly 

 negative, alkalis positive, aud inflammable substances 

 highly positive; and as I have found, acid matters when po- 

 sitively electrified, and alkaline matters when negatively 

 electrified, seem to lose all their peculiar properties and 

 powers of combination. In those instances the chemical 

 qualities are shown to depend upon the electrical powers ; 

 and it is not impossible, that matter of the same kind, pos- 

 sessed of different electrical powers, may exhibit different 

 chemical forms*. 



I venture 



Potassium burns in carbwnic aeid, and precipitates charcoal from it; 

 whereas hidrogen electrized with carbonic acid converts it into gaseous 

 oxfde of carbon. 



Potash has a very slight attraction for phosphorus ; but potassium has 

 a very strong affinity for it, so as to separate it from hidrogen, and ac- 

 cording to Messrs. Gay Lussac and Thenard, with the phenomena of in- 

 flammation. Potash has no affinity for ar>enic, yet from the experiments 

 of these gentlemen it appears that potassium separates arsenic from ar- 

 leniated hidrogen; and hidrogen, which is supposed by them to exist in 

 both compounds, can have no affinity for hidrogen, nor can hidrogen in 

 one form be supposed capable of separating arsenic from hidrogen in an- 

 other form. 



Could not the experiment of Messrs. Gay Lussac and Thenard, be ex- 

 plained, except on the supposition of the hidrogen being derived from the 

 potassium, it -would be a distinct fact in favour of the revival Of the 

 theory of phlogiston. It would not prove, however, that potassium is 

 composed of hidrogen and potash, but that it is composed of hidrogen 

 %nd an unknown basis > and that, potash is this basis united to water. 



* Phil. Trans. 1807, Part I, p. 23, or pur Journal, vol XIX, p. 3S8. 

 The amalgam obtained from ammonia ofFers difficulties to both the 

 phlogistic and antiphlogistic hypotheses. If we assume the phlogistic 

 hypothesis, then we must assume, that nitrogen, by combining with one 

 fourth of its weight of hidrogen can form an alkali, and by combining 

 with one twelfth more can become metallic. If we reason on the anti- 

 phlogistic hypothesis, we mustasseit, that, though nitrogen has a weaker 

 affinity for oxigen than hidrogen. yet a compound of hidrogen and ni- 

 trogen is capable of decomposing water. 



The first assumption is however by far the most contradictory to the 

 •rder of common chemical facts; the last, though it cannot be wholly 



lemoved 



