86 Dr. Kane on the Compounds of Ammonia. 



In quicksilver there is the oxychloride 



ugcl -\- 2 ugo ■\- HgO, 

 and then 



Hgcl 4- 2 wgo -j- Hg-At? 



evidently corresponding ; but in most instances the basic chlorides follow, like 

 the sulphates, the form of the hydrated neutral conditions, and hence there is 



zncl -\- 6 zno 

 cud -j- 4 cuo 

 cud -j- 2 cuo 



as there are two, four, or six atoms of water in the crystallized conditions of 

 various chlorides. 



Prop. VII. — That if chlorine could be separated from sal ammoniac, the resi- 

 dual NH^ should be regarded as nh^ -}- 2 h, sub-amidide of hydrogen, as 

 when by removing the chlorine from white precipitate, the sub-amidide of 

 mercury, nh^-J- '2,ng, formed by the action of water of ammonia on calomel, 

 should remain. 



The discussion of this proposition leads to some considerations as to the 

 nature of the so called compound radicals, which of late years have played so 

 distinguished a part in the progress of chemical philosophy. The views which 

 I shall put forward I offer with considerable hesitation, as not resting directly 

 upon experimental evidence, but resulting from the peculiar manner in which 

 my researches have induced me to contemplate the nature of those hypothetic 

 bodies. 



The fundamental idea that a compound body might so manifest its affinities 

 as to simulate the properties of an undecompounded substance, received its first 

 conception, as well as proof, from the beautiful discovery of cyanogen by Gay 

 Lussac, which continues even up to the present day the most glaring instance of 

 the truth, as well as the most excellent example of the nature of the theory of 

 compound radicals. 



The extension of the principle involved in the very existence of cyanogen, to 

 explain the constitution of classes of bodies of organic origin presenting strong 

 analogies to the cyanides, although the compound radicals of their series could 



