76 Dr. Kane on the Compounds of Ammonia. 



assumes two equivalents of water, and becomes H.SO4 + hac^.ho, with which very 

 many analogues will be found. Thus in the magnesian class we find the sul- 

 phate of copper uniting with ammonia in a similar manner to form the body 

 CMSO4.+ BAd. In nickel there is m.so^ + ha(/; and in the zinc combinations 

 there is not merely znso^ + ha^, but znso^ -j- hacJ.ho, resembling in constitution 

 the ordinary sulphate of ammonia. It is very much to be regretted that the cir- 

 cumstance of water decomposing these bodies prevents the question of their 

 isomorphism with the ordinary ammonia salts from being fully determined, but 

 it is not improbable that future research may enable some instances to be 

 examined.* 



• In the Jahresbericht for 1837, (17th year,) page 139, Berzelius, in commenting on the inte- 

 resting results of Heinrich Rose on the combinations of dry sulphuric acid and the chlorides of the 

 alkaline metals, &c., speaks of the combination of sulphuric acid and sal ammoniac in the following 

 terms, which, that work being but little circulated in Ireland, I shall here translate, as the opinions of 

 that eminent chemical philosopher must affect considerably the judgment of chemists concerning the 

 views which I have proposed. 



" These facts are of great theoretical interest. They appear, if not expressly to answer, at least 

 to give indications for the solution of a great variety of questions. That, for example, whether sal 

 ammoniac consists of muriatic acid and ammonia, or of the metallic body, ammonium, and chlorine. 

 The great analogy between chloride of potassium and sal ammoniac seems to me to speak plainly 

 enough in this question, but distinguished chemists appear not to approve of this evidence, and prefer 

 the former view as the more probable. If we consider the action of dry sulphuric acid on sal ammo- 

 niac as a new form of the question put in order to compel an answer, the answer given must negative 

 the view of hydrochlorate of ammonia. Dry sulphuric aeid, combined with ammonia, cannot be 

 expelled by muriatic acid, and consequently has a greater affinity for it than the latter. It is hence 

 clear, that if muriatic acid were present in sal ammoniac it should be expelled by the dry sulphuric 

 acid. On the contrary, however, the acid unites with the sal ammoniac, and forms a body, which 

 in all its relations corresponds to the compounds of the acid with the chlorides of potassium and 

 sodium, and it is only by a higher temperature being applied that decomposition sets in, and there 

 are formed dry sulphate of ammonia and free hydrochloric acid. My view may be rather keen- 

 edged, but it appears to me that these experiments of Rose's declare with positive openness the 

 sal ammoniac to be chloride of ammonium, and not hydro-chlorate of ammonia." — Page 141. 



If wo look upon the relation between ammonia and chloride of hydrogen as being in accordance 

 with the old view, that of acid to base, then the criticism of Berzehus must be considered as possess- 

 ing very considerable accuracy and force. But it has been my great object in the present section to 

 show, that our views in this respect require a profound alteration. When we apply to the explana- 

 tion of Rose's results the lights which we receive, in addition, from the change in our point of view, 

 and that we consider the oxyamidide and chloro-amidide of hydrogen as related to each other, Uke 



