268 On definite Proporiions. 
oxygen as the base by which they are saturated, the quan= 
tity neutralized by ammonia contains either 3 or 14 as 
much oxygen as would be necessary in order to form wa- 
ter with the hydrogen of the ammonia: and these are mule 
tiples of which we have no other examples. In the hyper- 
exymuriate of ammonia, which I shall mention hereafter, 
the ammonia exists in such a proportion, that the acid 
contains 2¢ times as much oxygen as would be necessary 
for forming water with hydrogen. On the other hand, 
we shall find that if ammonia be considered as a metallic 
oxide, constituted in the mannes already calculated, it will 
appear to be subject precisely to the same laws as the other 
alkahs, earths, and metallic oxides. 
Ammonia and sulphureted hydrogen are very differently 
affected by the electrical column, Although both are de- 
composed by the interposition of water, which is itself de- 
composed at the same time, yet the ammonia is also col- 
lected as a [positive] undecomposed substance at the nega- 
tive pole, while the sulphureted hydrogen is never collected as 
a [negative] substance atthe positive pole. Besides, ammonia, 
onder certain circumstances, like the other alkalis, produces 
a metallic body at the negative pole, and seems to indicate 
2 case of reduction, which does not happen to the sul- 
phoreted hydrogen. The amalgamation of ammonia de- 
snonstrates the deposition of a [positive] substance, to com- 
pensate for which a corresponding quantity of a [negative] 
substance must be collected at the positive pole. The 
french chemists explain this by supposing that the whole 
undecomposed alkali unites with the hydrogen of the de- 
composed partion, and that the metallic body is produced 
by this unions, According to this explanation, it is only 
the hydrogen that passes to the negative pole in compen- 
sation for the nitrogen disengaged at the positive pole, and 
that fixes a portion of the ammonia, so as to form a metal- 
Hie substance with it. Such a fact would be very important 
in determining: the intimate nature of metals in general: 
but can tt be supposed that the undecomposed ammonia, to 
which in this view of the subject there is no corresponding 
deposition at the positive pole, and which therefore only: 
obeys the chemical attraction of the hydrogen, an attrac- 
tion, by the way_not otherwise discoverable ;—that this 
portion of ammonia should act only a chemical part in the 
amalgamation, not immediately depending on the operation 
of electricity? I can scarcely admit the plausibility of 
such a statement. However the phenomenon may be 
explained, the explanation must incontroyertibly hold good. 
for 
7 
ne 
