340 ^eio analytical Researches 



crystallized. 'I made a solution of it in muriatic acid; but 

 hydrogen alone was evolved. 



I distilled a quantity of the fusible substance From nine 

 grains of potassium in an iron vessel, wbich communicated 

 with a receiver containing about 100 grains of mercury, and 

 by a narrow glass tube the gas generated was made to pass 

 throueh the mercury ; the object of this process was to de- 

 tect if any of the same substance as that existing in the 

 amalffam from ammonia was formed ; but during the whole 

 period of distillation the mercury remained unaltered in its 

 appearance, and did not eftervesce in the slightest degree 

 when thrown into water. 



That the nitrogen which disappears in this experiment is 

 ab?oUil.elv converted into oxyrccn and hydrogen, and that 

 its elements are capable of being furnished from water, is a 

 conclusion of such importance, and so unsupported by the 

 general order of chemical facts, that it ought not to be ad- 

 iDittcd, except upon the most rigid and evident experi- 

 mental prtjofs. 



I have repeated the experiment of the absorption of am- 

 monia by potassium in trays of plaiina or iron, and its di- 

 stillation in tubes of iron, more than twenty times, and often 

 in the presence of some of the most distinguished chemists 

 in this country, from whose acutencss of observation I 

 hoped no source of error could escape. 



The results, though not perfectly uti'.form, have all been 

 of the same kind as those described in page 53*. Six grains 

 of potassium, the quantity constantly used, always caused 

 llie disappearance of from 10 to 12*5 cubical inches of well 

 dried ammonia. From 5-5 to 6 cubical inches of hydrogen 

 were produced, a quantity always inferior to that evolved 

 by the action of an equal portion of the metal upon water. 

 In the distillation from 11 to 1 7 cubical inches of elastic 

 fluid were evolved, and from 1-5 to 2'3 grains of potassium 

 recjevierated. 



The quantity of ammonia in the products, varied from a 

 portion that was scarcely perceptible to one-twelfth or one- 

 ihirlcenlh of the whole volume of elastic fluid ; and it was 

 least in those cases in which the absence of moisture was 

 most perfectly guarded against. Under these circumstances 

 likewise, mote potassiunj was revived ; and the unabsorb- 

 ablc elastic fluid, and particularly the hydrogen, in smaller 

 proportion. 



When the products of distillation v.cre collected at dif- 

 ferent periods^ it was uniformly found that the proportior* 



* Page 9 of flur present volume. 



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