Pray 
Researches on the Action of Ammonia upon the Chlorides and O.xides of Mercury. 
By Roserr Kaye, M.D. M.R.1.A., Professor to the Royal Dublin Society and 
the Apothecaries’ Hall, Corresponding Member of the Society of Pharmacy of 
Paris, and of the Society of Medical Chemistry in the same City. 
Read November 30th and December 28th 1835. 
Secrion I.— Of the Action of Ammonia upon the Bichloride of Mercury. 
Tue action of ammonia upon corrosive sublimate is of so remarkable a nature, 
as to have attracted attention from a very early period. There have been, therefore, 
very many facts elicited; but the discordance in the quantitative results of the most 
eminent chemists who have applied themselves to its elucidation, renders an attentive 
and fundamental re-examination of the subject necessary before any conclusion can be 
justly drawn. In the elementary works on chemistry, a theory is given as an ascer- 
tained truth, which we shall find to be totally devoid of foundation ; and almost every 
analyst that has written, has brought forward a different hypothesis of his own. 
Ammonia may be made to act upon corrosive sublimate in either of two ways—first. 
by passing the gas directly over dry deuto-chloride ; or, secondly, by adding solution 
of ammonia to that of corrosive sublimate. The reaction of the first case has only been 
examined by Grouvelle and Rose,*—that of the second has obtained an amount of 
study bestowed on few bodies. The memoirs of Fourcroy,t of Hennell,+ Guibourt,$ 
Soubeiran,|| and Mitcherlich,§ have shown the interest attached by chemists to 
the investigation of the nature of these bodies ; but, by the absolute discordance of 
the results, and by the accidental misinterpretation of some of them, have demon- 
strated the existence of some latent error, and the necessity for new investigations, in 
which it should be sought for, detected, and avoided. 
* Poggendorff, Annalen der Physik, vol. xci. 
+ Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique, vol. vi. p. 312. 
+ Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. xviii. p. 291. 
§ Journal de Pharmacie, vol. vi. 
|| Soubeiran, Journal de Pharmacie, vol. xii. 24; Annales de Chimie, vol. xxxvi. p. 220. 
q Mitcherlich, Poggendorff, vol. Ixxxv. p, 410. 
VOL. XVII. 4F 
