64 Dr. Kane on the Compounds of Ammonia. 



in combination as water, oxide of hydrogen, whether as basic water, or water 



of crystallization, and likewise can replace the water termed saline in certain 



salts by Graham. 

 V. — That the so called oxide of ammonium nh^o is oxy-amidide of hydrogen 



NHj . H -|- HO, and that sal ammoniac is chloro-amidide of hydrogen nh^ . h -|- 



ucl. 

 VI. — That the ordinary ammonia salts ally themselves to the salts of the copper 



and zinc class, which contain two equivalents of oxide. 

 VII. — That if chlorine could be separated from sal ammoniac, the residual NH4 



should be regarded as nH2 + 2h, sub-amidide of hydrogen, as when by 



removing the chlorine from white precipitate, the sub-amidide of mercury, 



NHj + ^Hg-, formed by the action of water of ammonia on calomel, should 



remain. 



Prop. I. — Of the general positive Nature of the Compounds of Hydrogen. 



In a memoir which was published in 1831 in the Dublin Journal of Medical 

 and Chemical Science, I pointed out that the general bearing of the properties 

 of the compounds of hydrogen should induce us to assign to those bodies a totally 

 different position from that which the names of hydrogen-acids previously 

 assigned to most of them would appear to warrant. Thus that, whilst we found 

 hydrogen to manifest immensely superior electro-positive energies to those of 

 gold, platinum, or sulphur, it was quite unphilosophical to suppose, that when all 

 of these bodies were combined with chlorine, the hydrogen should be that least 

 capable of diminishing the negative power of the chlorine. I showed that from 

 the considerations which are suggested to us by a fair comparison of the proper- 

 ties of the oxides, chlorides, sulphurets, &c. of hydrogen, with those of the similar 

 compounds of the metals, it became quite necessary to allow, that although in some 

 cases, as where water united with potash or lime, the hydrogen body may per- 

 form the negative function, yet in the vast majority of cases the part played 

 by it in combination is that of positive constituent. 



I shall refer to the memoir above quoted for the details of the views which I 

 then brought forward ; previously to that time Mitscherlich had already sug- 

 gested, that in the hydrated acids the water acted as a base, but this, from the indif- 

 ferentism of water in the generality of chemical actions, could not be considered 



