[y. 42, J 
clufion every one who has made the experiment muft know to be 
erroneous, for the fmell of the alkali evidently indicates that it 
efcapes along with the. fixed air, when it is not previoufly much 
diluted. — 
Acatn, into another half ounce of his fpirit of vitriol he 
dropped 336 grs. of common fpirit of fal ammoniac, and found 
the lofs of air to be but 38 grs.; hence he concluded the quantity 
of real alkali to be proportionably fmaller than in his firft 
experiment. Having attained the point of faturation, he gently 
evaporated the folution and expofed the newly formed falt to 
a heat of 212° for four hours, and then found it to weigh 129 
grs.; now as his fpirit of vitriol contained 75,75 grs. of the 
ftrongeft vitriolic acid, he fuppofed the falt thus formed to 
contain that quantity of the ftrongeft acid, and this fuppofition 
is juft; but he further fuppofes that all the water contained 
both in the acid and in the alkali was expelled by the heat of 212°, 
which cannot be credited; and thence infers that the remainder 
of the 129 grs. was pure alkali, viz. 53,25 grs..a conclufion 
which the premifes do not warrant. It is therefore ufelefs to 
examine his fubfequent dedu@iions: by my computation the 
quantity of vitriolic ammoniac that fhould refult from Mr. 
Wenzel’s experiment is 135 grs. for 240 grs. of his fpirit of 
vitriolic contain 84,72 of my ftandard; and fince 62,447 of 
ftandard go into the compofition of 100 parts vitriolic ammoniac, 
84,72 fhould enter in that of 135 grs. of that falt; 6 grs. were 
therefore probably loft during the evaporation of Mr. Wenzel’s 
falt, or efcaped with the fixed air. 
NEITHER 
