a 84 General Account of the Nitrous Oxide, 



Seft. 2. Ether, alcohol, and the volatile and fixed oils, diffolve nitrous oxtde in larger 

 quantities than water at common temperatures ; but without undergoing any material 

 alteration in their properties. The gas is incapable of remaining in combination with 

 them at the temperature of their ebullition, or under the exhaufled receiver. 



Se£l:. 3. Nitrous oxide has as yet been combined with no folid bodies, except the fixed 

 alkalies; and even the affinities of water, alcohol, ether, &c. for this gas appear to be 

 diminlfhed when they hold in folution neutral falts and other fubftances. The fulphurets, 

 the fulphites, and the dlfl'erent bodies that aft upon nitrous gas, both dry and in foiution, 

 effeiSl no alteration in the compofition of nitrous oxide. 



Se£l. 4. The maria tjc, and the fulphureous acid gafes, expand a little when mingled 

 with nitrous oxide ; but they are readily feparated from it by water. No other aeriform 

 fluids appear to be poflefTed of the leaft power of a6tion upon this gas at common tem- 

 peratures. 



Se£t. 5. None of the alkaline bodies, except pot-a(h and foda, have as yet been com- 

 bined with nitrous oxide; and even thefe fubftances are capable of uniting with it, only 

 when it is in the nafcent ftate. 



a. When nitrous oxide in a free fiiate is expofed to the dry alkalies, or alkaline earths, 

 at common temperatures, it is neither abforbed nor aded upon. When it is placed in 

 contadl with folutions of them in water, a fmall quantity of it is diflblved : this pheno- 

 menon, however, appears to depend, in a great meafure, on the water of the folution -, for 

 the gas may be expelled from it unaltered at the temperature of its ebullition. 



b. To form the combination of pot-afli, or foda, and nitrous oxide, the alkalies, after 

 being mingled in the dry ftate with alkaline fulphites, muft be expofed, together with 

 them, to nitrous gas. The nitrous oxide, as fafl as it is formed by the action of the 

 fulphite on the nitrous gas, is abforbed by the free alkali ; and thus a permanent union 

 is efFeftcd between the two bodies. 



c. The compound of nitrous oxide and pot-afli is very foluble in water, but apparently 

 infoluble in alcohol. Its tafte is not very different from that of cauftic pot-afli, perhaps a 

 little more pungent. When afted upon by the acids it gives out nitrous oxide. This gas 

 is likewife difengaged from it in a pure form by the application of a heat above 400°, 

 Fahrenheit. It produces fcintijjations when thrown upon red hot charcoal. 



d. The properties of the combination of foda and nitrous oxide are not materially 

 different from thofe of the compound of pot-afli and nitrous oxide. 



IV. Of the Aclion of Heat and EleBricity on Nitrous Oxide. 



Se£l 1. Nitrous oxide undergoes no change in its compofition at temperatures below 

 thofe of ignition, though expofed to them for ever fo great a length of time. When, 

 however, it is pafled through a porcelain tube, heated red, or when it is afted on for a 

 long^ wliile by the thOaiz fpark, a new arr^ngemewt of its principles takes place, and it 



becomes 



