On a ne-u fulminating Mercury. 1%'^ 



It is of courfe either not formed, or is convertible into 

 nitrous gas, by the concentrate nitric and muriatic acids j ' 

 becaufe, by thofe acids, no inflammable gas was extricated 

 from the powder. 



Should this inflammable gas prove not to be a hydro-carbo- 

 nat, I {hall be difpofed tq conclude that it has nitrogen for its 

 bafis; indeed, I am at this moment inclined to that opinion, 

 becaufe I find that Dr. Prieftley, during his experiments on. 

 his dephlogifticated nitrous air, once produced a gas which 

 fcems tu have refcmbled this inflammable gas, both in the 

 mode of burning, and in the colour of the flame. 



After the termination of the coipmon folulion of iron in 

 fpirit of nitre, he ufed heat, and got, fays he *, " fuch a 

 kind of air as I had brought nitrous air to be, by expoiin"" 

 it to iron, or liver qf fulphur; for, on the firft trial, a candle 

 burned in it with a much enlarged flange. At another time, 

 the application of a candle to air produced in this manner, 

 was attended with a real though not a loud explofion ; and, 

 immediately after this, a greenijh coloured J{a?ne dcjcended 

 from the top to the holtom of the 'veffel in which the air was 

 contained. In the next produce of air, from the fame pro- 

 cefs, the fame difcended blue and very rapid, from the 'top 

 to the bottom of the veflel." 



Thefe greenifli and blue coloured flames, dcfcending from 

 the top to the bottom of the veflel, are prccifely defcriptive of 

 the inflammable gas feparated from the powder. If it can be 

 produced with certainty by the repetition of Dr. Prieftlev's 

 experiments, or (liould it by any means be got pure from the 

 nitrous etherifed gas, my curiofity will excite me to make it 

 the ohjeel; of future re Tea re h ; otherwife, I muft confefs, I 

 fhall led more difpofed to profccutc other chemical fu^jefts : 

 iiiv, having reafon to think that the denfity of the acid made 

 a variation in the produft of this gas, and having never found 

 that iinj acid, however dcnfc, p/oduccd an immediate ex- 

 plofion, I once poured fix drams of concentrate acid upon 

 fifty grains of the powder. An explofion, nearly at the in- 

 'liaiit of coutai5V, was elVeclcd : I was wouiided fcvcrely, ^nd 

 * Piicflity '^n Air, Vol. H. p. jT. Biimiiigham, 1790. 



li -2 moft 



