413 



tensively met with in nature, especially in organized bodies, and in 

 particular occurs as an element in that important substance, on the 

 confines of the mineral and organic kingdoms, to which the Re- 

 searches of Doctor Kane relate ; ammonia being, as all chemists 

 admit, a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, which last-named 

 gas is well known as being the other chief ingredient (besides oxy- 

 gen) of atmospheric air. 



Again, it is generally known, to those who take an interest in 

 physical science, as a truth which is almost the foundation of 

 modern chemistry, that the elements of bodies of well-marked and 

 definite constitutions, such as pure (distilled) water, or dry (anhy- 

 drous) ammonia, are combined, not in arbitrary, but in fixed and 

 determined proportions ; for example, the oxygen contained in any 

 quantity of pure water weighs exactly, or almost exactly, eight 

 times as much as the hydrogen contained in the same quantity, but 

 occupies (when collected and measured) a space or volume only 

 half as great; and the nitrogen contained in any given amount of 

 dry ammoniacal gas, is to the hydrogen with which it is combined, 

 by weight as 14 to 3, and by volume in the proportion, equally fixed, 

 of 1 to 3. 



Yet such results as these, respecting the constitution of com- 

 pound bodies, however numerous and accurate they may be, are 

 still not sufl[icient to satisfy the curiosity, or to terminate the re- 

 searches of chemists. They aspire to understand, if possible, not 

 only the ultimate constitution of bodies, or the elements of which 

 they are composed, and the proportions of those elements, but also 

 the proximate constitution of the same bodies, or the manner in 

 which they arise from other intermediate and less complex com- 

 pounds. Water, for instance, is believed to enter, in many cases, 

 into composition with other bodies, as water, not as oxygen and 

 hydrogen. Has ammonia any such component, which itself is 

 composite '? It is admitted to consist of one volume of nitrogen, 

 combined with three of hydrogen. Can any order be discovered in 

 this combination, any proximate constituent, any simpler and earlier 

 product, from which the ammonia is afterwards produced ? Until 

 experiments decide, it appears not impossible, may seem even not 

 unlikely, that nitrogen may combine (more intimately than by mere 



