Oh the conjiltuent Parts of A^ot. 345* 



azot contained in atmofpheric air. Earths do not indicate 

 the azot contained in atmofpheric air ; they convert that air 

 into azot. 



Cultivated earth being in contaft with the atmofpher^ 

 abforbs its oxygen and forms azot. In the polar regions, 

 iand on the fummits of the Alps, where the earth is alway3 

 covered Vvith fnow, the atmofpheric air contains a greater 

 quantity of oxygen than in the fouthern countries or in the 

 plains, as the fnow prevents the air from coming in conta6t 

 \vith the earth. 



Since the conflltuent parts of azot are now known, we 

 ttiight write a new theory of the art of making faltpetre. 

 The Annates dc Ch'imie* Contain fome very valuable ob- 

 fervations on this fubjeft ; for example, the following:—* 

 *' The earth taken up from deep fubterrarteous places well 

 fecured from the light, fuch as cellarSj requires only to be 

 expofed to the air a few days to produce abundance of falt- 

 petre. It Is worthy of obfervation, that fuch earth does not 

 furnlfh an atom of nitrat when taken from the damp and 

 obfcure places where it was formed, and that it is only by 

 the combination or combuftion of the azot of the earth by 

 the oxygen of the atmofphere that this fait is produced.'* 

 The explanation given of this interefting phenomenon in the 

 fame work f, is a proof how far we were from the truth be- 

 fore the nature of azot was better known* 



As lime abforbs oxygen with avidity, we fee the reafon of 

 the lufalubrity of apartments the walls of whieh have beea 

 recently whitened. 



The following bodies are combinations of hydrogen wltlj 

 oxygen in different proportions : azot, the gafeous oxyd of 

 azot, nitrous gas, the nitrous acid, the nitric acid, the mu- 

 riatic acid, the oxygenated muriatic acid, the nitro-muriatic 

 acid, water, atmofpheric air, ammonia. I hope to be able 

 foon to prove that to this lift we ought to add potafli, foda, 

 and fulphirr. Phofphorus appears to me to be hydrogen la 

 the pureft flate with which we are acquainted with It j but 

 this I am far from being able to prove. In regard to the 



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