ALKALI METAL ; EDWARD DIVEES. 25 



hyponitrite, very little becoming hydroxylamine ; or, of nearly 

 one-fifth of the nitrite more than half may be converted into 

 hydroxylamine, only the rest of the fifth becoming hyponitrite, 

 in the other extreme case. It may, therefore, safely be assumed 

 that about one-fifth of the nitrite tends to, or is able to, become 

 hyponitrite, although barely one-sixth of the nitrite can yet be 

 secured as this salt, because either some of this fifth becomes 

 hydroxylamine instead, or, else, that a little hyponitrite is 

 hydrolysed at once or during the process of isolating it. With 

 that assumption to give more precision to the statement, it may 

 be affirmed that many experiments under varied conditions have 

 shown that about a fifth of the nitrite is decomposed by sodium 

 amalgam in one way, and four-fifths in another way ; in one 

 are formed hyponitrite, hydroxylamine, and alkali (with a very 

 little ammonia and nitrous oxide as secondary products), and 

 in the other way, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, and alkali : so that 

 when much hydroxylamine is got it is at the expense of hypo- 

 nitrite only, and when much nitrogen is got it proves to be at 

 the expense of the nitrous oxide only. 



But though this is the case, there seems to be no deriva- 

 tion of the hydroxylamine from the hyponitrite, or of the 

 nitrogen from the nitrous oxide, but, rather, the derivation of 

 the one pair of substances from one transition product and of 

 the other pair from another transition product. It was pointed 

 out in my first paper that sodium amalgam is inactive upon 

 hyponitrite, and this has since been more fully established by 

 Dunstan and Dymond, and again by Thum. According to the 

 last named chemist, hyponitrous acid is not even reduced by 

 zinc and boiling dilute sulphuric acid. I can now assert, in 

 confirmation of my earlier statement, that sodium amalgam has 



