Action of Ammonia and Muriatic Acid. 219 



me (I have good reason to believe) to the result, that a 

 great number of compounds, hitherto considered to contain 

 ammonia itself, do in reality contain the body N H 2 , to 

 which I have proposed to give the name Amidogene, reserv- 

 ing the word Amide to express its combinations. I have 

 concluded the examination of the action of ammonia upon 

 the Haloid compounds of mercury, and purpose following 

 up the re-actions on the other metallic bodies according as 

 I can make time. The memoir on the mercury compounds 

 is now before the Royal Irish Academy ; but I take this 

 opportunity of putting the results into your hands. 



The popular idea of white precipitate is certainly wrong. 

 In place of being Hg + CI N H 4 , it cannot be proved 

 to contain any constant quantity of oxygen at all. I ana- 

 lyzed it a great number of times, and the average of all the 

 analyses, none of which diverge far, is 

 78-60 = Hg 

 6-77 = N H 3 

 13-85 = CI 

 0-58 = H 



0*20 = Loss, the water evidently 

 from partial desiccation. 



The formula I deduce is this, (2 CI + Hg) + (2 N H 2 + Hg) 

 which perfectly explains all the properties of the body. 



The white powder is acted on definitely by water or by 

 alkalies in excess ; the result is a yellow powder, having 

 the composition (2 CI + Hg) + 2 Hg + (2 N H 2 + Hg) 

 and sal-ammoniac is dissolved. 



The compound (2 CI + Hg) + N H 3 is decomposed 

 by water into white precipitate and sal-alembroth, as can 

 be at once seen from their respective formulae. 



It is generally said that ammonia liberates black oxide 

 from calomel ; that is not true. There is abstracted but 

 half the chlorine, and there is produced a dark gray powder 

 having the composition (CY+ Hg) + (N H 2 + Hg). The 

 direct combination (CI + Hg) + N H 3 gives this powder 

 and sal-ammoniac by the action of water. 



The iodides and cyanides form only the combinations 

 (2 I + Hg) + 2 N H 3 and (2 Cy + Hg) + N H 3 , which 

 are decomposed by water, without their elements entering 

 into any new state of combination. 



