Solvent Action of Muriate and Nitrate of Ammonia. 33 S 



Together, the result is, for 100 parts, 



Cyanide of f)()tassium 53*4 



Carbonate of potash 45*8 



99-2 

 Loss '8 



— a result confirmatory of sodium being present in small quan- 

 tity. 



That the salt contained no caustic alkali was thus proved. 

 Into a weak solution of the salt, a solution of nitrate of silver, 

 likewise weak, was dropped. The precipitate was white, as 

 would occur from a solution either of cyanide of potassium or 

 of carbonate of potash. Into a similar solution of the salt, 

 one or two drops of a weak solution of caustic potash were 

 let fall, and, afterwards, one drop of the nitrate of silver solu- 

 tion; whereupon the light grayish brown, indicative of the 

 precipitation of oxide of silver, at once appeared. The ab- 

 sence of this light grayish brown in the previous experiment 

 demonstrated the absence of caustic potash or caustic soda in 

 the salt under examination*. 



Marischal College, March 18, 1837. 



LXIV. Further Experiments on the Solubility of certain Me- 

 tallic Oxides and Salts i?i Muriate and Nitrate of Ainmonia, 

 By R. H. Brett, Esq., F.L.S. 



QINCE publishing my paper in the February Number of 

 ^ the Philosophical Magazine, p. 95, I have made further ex- 

 periments on the same subject, the results of which I now offer 

 for insertion at this time, more especially since a recent criti- 

 cism has appeared, p. 1 78, not at all invalidating the accuracy of 

 the experiments, but complaining of what the author terms a 

 '' serious omission" likely to produce an erroneous opinion 

 as to the cause by which certain metallic oxides and salts are 

 brought into solution under certain circumstances. My ob- 

 ject, in the paper to which I have alluded, was to state certain 

 facts, which 1 believed to be of considerable importance in 

 chemical analysis, and an ignorance of which must lead to se- 

 rious errors, especially in certain quantitative investigations. 

 Your correspondent disapproves of the term soluble in muriate 

 or nitrate of ammonia, and had I expressly stated that such 

 solution Uikes place in every instance, without decomposition 

 of the ammoniacal salt employed, I should doubtless have 

 committed a grave error; such, however, was never my belief, 

 and the exact nature of the changes which took place, was- 



• In reference to the subject of Dr. Clark's paper we may rite a notice 

 in Phil. Mag., First Series, vol. Ixii. p. 234.— Edit. 



