Dr. Kane on the Compounds of Ammonia. 21 



484.74 100.00 



and which is abundantly confirmed by the reactions of the body and by the quan- 

 tity of mercury, which analysis indicated it to contain. 



When a solution of proto-nitrate of mercury has been kept for a long time, 

 there are frequently deposited in it a fine lemon-yellow crystalline salt, of great 

 brilliancy. I have never seen the crystals larger than pins' heads, and they have 

 been always too closely aggregated to allow of an accurate determination of their 

 form. They react, in every respect, similarly to the powder just described, and 

 their composition was determined by the following analysis : 



6.257 grammes were dissolved in muriatic acid, and the solution having been 

 considerably diluted, was treated by sulphuretted hydrogen. There was obtained 

 6.038 of sulphuret, being 96.5 per cent., containing 83.28 of mercury. Hence 

 the formation of these crystals is evidently owing to the very gradual deposition 

 of the basic salt from an acid liquor, and they are of the same nature as the 

 powder rapidly prepared. 



It will be seen that in this basic salt the law of replacement of water by me- 

 tallic oxide holds, although the absolute number of atoms is quite different. It 

 was found that the first crystallized nitrate of the black oxide had for its formula 



H^O.NOj-j-^HO; 



and the yellow basic salt is now proved to be 



HO.NOj+^H^O. 



Moreover the second crystallized salt was shown to be, from Mltscherlich's 

 analyses, as well as my own, 



2 NO5 + 3 i^o -{- 3 HO = 



{h^o . NO5-I- 2ho} + {ho . NOj + 2h^o}. 



Hence, as was before alluded to, there is great reason to suppose the second 

 crystallized proto-nitrate to be a double salt, consisting of the first and of the 

 yellow basic salt, united in the proportion of an equivalent of each. 



