SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 23.9 



the substance is obtained free from water, it is more con- 

 ducting as to elecricity, docs not redden vegelahle bines, 

 and in different combinations detonates violently Willi pot- 

 assium. Whether ihk muriatic basis be separated in these 

 explosions, Mr. Davy has not yet been able to ascertain. 



In a communication read before the Royal Society, Fe- Nitrogen de- 

 bruary the 3d, Mr. Davy has detailed vanous cxperimeats com P 0Sed * 

 on the distillation of substances formed by the action of 

 potassium on ammonia, which he conceives cannot be ex- 

 plained on any other supposition, except that* nitrogen is a 

 compound of oxigen and hidrogen, or that ammonia and 

 water consist of the same kind of ponderable elementary 

 matter. Whichever conclusion may be finally adopted, the 

 decomposition of nitrogen in the process is sufficiently evi- 

 dent. 



By an errour of the press in the extract from Mr. Davy^s Correction of 

 letter in our last number, 1000 is put for 100. The con- * n errour - 

 text sufficiently shows this mistake; but for greater security 

 I notice in this place, that 100 plates are quite sufficient for 

 decomposing potash. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Dr. ROBERT HARRINGTON, of Carlisle, must al- 

 low me to decline any engagement as to publishing his in- 

 tended communication, till after it may have beeu submit- 

 ted to my perusal. I must also beg leave to say, that 

 neither the threat nor the insinuations contained in the let- 

 ter, which conveys the proposal I have rejected, are, in my 

 apprehension, entitled to notice. 



I am much obliged by the communication of Mr. Kemp, 

 which I am prevented from making use of, because his re- 

 searches have been anticipated; as may be seen in the 2d 

 edition of my Chemical Dictionary, and in Rees's Cyclo- 

 pedia, Art, Copal. 



