1866. | Chemistry. 87 
acid and ammonia. In the reaction of nitric acid upon certain 
metals it is well known that ammonia is formed; Lossen, how- 
ever, has shown that the ammonia is only the final product 
of the reaction, and that a whole series of intermediate bodies 
existed between the nitric acid and the last product of its re- 
duction. One of these bodies Lossen has succeeded in isolating, 
and has found it to have the formula H,NO. It may, therefore, 
be regarded as protoxide of ammonia, or, more scientifically, as 
ammonia in which one atom of hydrogen is displaced by the residue 
of water HO, hydroxyl, as it has been called. Viewed in the 
latter light, the new body may be termed hydroaylamine. Like 
ammonia it combines with acids, and yields a series of magnificent 
and easily crystallizable salts. As Dr. Hofmann remarked, it is 
interesting to see the simplest (?) of reactions familiar to every 
chemist still yielding a harvest of such splendid results. 
Since the above was written we have seen* an abstract of the 
memoir on the subject presented to the Berlin Academy by Dr. 
Lossen. In this we find the method of preparing hydrochlorate 
of hydroxylamine. Five parts of nitric ether, and 12 parts of tin 
are added to 50 parts of hydrochloric acid, sp. gr. 1-124. The mix- 
ture soon becomes hot, and hydrogen is evolved. When the re- 
action has terminated, the tm is removed from the solution _ by 
means of sulphuretted hydrogen, and the filtered liquor is evapo- 
rated. Sal-ammoniac first crystallizes out, the hydrochlorate of 
hydroxylamine being extremely soluble in water. The two bodies 
may be completely separated by dissolving both in absolute alcohol, 
and precipitating the sal-ammoniac with chloride of platinum, with 
which the hydrochlorate of hydroxylamine does not combine. 
We may here mention some experiments of Dr. Wetherill on 
ammonium amalgam,t which tend to disprove the existence of the 
compound metal NH,. Referring the reader to the paper indi- 
cated below, we need only state that the author’s experiments have 
led him to the conclusion that the so-called amalgam is not an 
alloy of mercury and ammonium, but merely a mass of mercury 
distended by bubbles of ammoniacal gas. 
A very interesting experiment devised by Kraut is described in 
the ‘ Annalen des Chemie und Pharmacie’ for October, and will be 
found in the ‘Chemical News.’{ The author hangs a platinum 
spiral in an open wide-mouthed flask containing so much strong 
ammonia, that the liquid nearly reaches to the end of the spiral. 
Having made the spiral and the ammonia hot, he passes a stream 
of oxygen through the liquid. The active decomposition of the 
ammonia, which now takes place, soon brings the platinum spiral 
* «Chem. Central Blatt,’ No. 61, 1865, p. 970. 
+ ‘Chemical News,’ vol. xii., p. 207. $ Vol. xii. p. 231. 
