226 DIVERS & HAGA : IDENTIFICATION AND CONSTITUTION OF 



the minute brilliant needles of his potassium suljohammonaie 

 (nitrilosulphate Berglund). Still other salts he believed to be 

 produced in the first stages of the reaction between the nitrite 

 and sulphur dioxide, one of which he named potassium sulph- 

 azite; but this he did not obtain directly, finding a reason for 

 this in the exceeding solubility of this early formed salt. He 

 prepared it — but only in quite small quantity and as crystalline 

 warty granules — by the action of water upon the ' sulphazate ' 

 whereby this was converted into ' basic sulphazotate ' which de- 

 posited and a solution that on evaporation yielded the ' suIjdIi- 

 azite.' These two salts could together in solution be changed 

 back into the ' metasulphazotate ' while the ' sulphazite ' and 

 the ' sulphazate ' could similarly often be changed into the ' meta- 

 sulphazate ' again. These two ' meta ' salts he regarded therefore 

 as perhaps merely double salts of the others. The ' sulphazite,' 

 the ' sulphazate,' and the ' sulphazotates ' he treated as being 

 members of a series of salts in which there Avere to two atoms of 

 nitrogen from one up to eight atoms of sulphur, — three in the 

 " sulphazite, four in the ' sulphazate', and five in the ' sulph- 

 azotates.' With this conception of the nature of these salts, based 

 on his analyses, it was easy to understand the decomposition of 

 the ' sulphazate ' into the ' sulphazite ' and the ' sulphazotate.' 

 But this and other of Fremy's interpretations of the facts ob- 

 served by him have lost all importance and particular interest 

 through the progress of chemistry since his memoir was pub- 

 lished and only his account of the facts requires consideration 

 now. 



Subsequent work by others and ourselves in the same field 

 has shown that Freniy in the account he gave of the preparation 

 of his many salts went two little into details as to the conditions 



