CONSTITUTION OF NITRIC PEROXIDE. 5 



all of the oxygen is exerting on the rest of the compound only half 

 its usual valency. Or, conversely, a peroxide may be defined as a 

 compound containing oxygen which is either actually univalent or 

 exteriorly and quasi-univalent. Apart from the unifamiliar nature of 



the conception of actually univalent oxygen, it seems natural enough 

 to find a normal molecule of nitric peroxide dissociate at a gentle 

 heat into two identical but simpler ones, in consequence of the 

 linked oxygen atoms becoming parted and losing valency. On the 

 other hand, the assumption that nitrogen is qurdrivalent does not 

 accord with the result actually obtained, when by cooling nitric 

 peroxide it is found that the valency of the nitrogen decreases instead 

 of increasing, 20:N:0 becoming 0:N-OON:0. 



