270 On definite Proportions. 
together would give 48:23 of oxygen in 100 parts of airi- 
monia, that is, only 1°34 per cent. more than we have al+ 
ready determined by calculation. Consequently either the 
proportion of oxygen in all these substances has been made 
a little too great, or, as I have reason to believe from other 
computations, the quantity of hydrogen in ammonia a little 
too small; or perhaps errors in both these respects are 
combined. [According to Sir H. Davy’s numbers, 106 
parts of ammonia contain 26 = &25 of nitrogen, giving 
46:29 of oxygen, and for the whole 48°12, which is still 
too much by 1:23 per cent. Tr.] 
If nitrogen is an oxide capable of higher degrees of oxi= 
dation, the quantity of oxygen in each must be an integral 
multiple of the quantity in nitrogen. Now Mr. Lay-Lussae 
has shown, in bis excellent essay on the combinations of 
gaseous bodies, that the nitrous oxide consists of 63°72 
parts of nitrogen and 36°28 of oxygen. In these 63°72 
parts of nitrogen, according to the preceding calculation, 
we find 36:2898 of oxygen’ hence it follows that the ni- 
trous oxide contains twice as much oxygen, for a given 
portion of ammonium, as nitrogen does. Now since in 
the remaining degrees of oxidation of the nitrogen the 
quantities of oxygen, according to the same investigations, 
are multiples by 2, 3, and4, of the quantity which converts 
106 parts of nitrogen into nitric oxide, it is evident that, 
if nitrogen contains a multiple by 12 of the lowest degree 
of oxidation of ammonium, these higher degrees must af- 
ford multiples by 24, 36, 48, and 60. Water, which, if all 
this is correct, must be ammonium oxidated in a still higher 
degree, must ‘tania in the same series, and exhibit another 
multiple composed of 12 as a factor, that is, a multiple 
by 72. Hence we have the following multiples of 11‘0346 
for the degrees of oxidation of ammonium, 100 parts af- 
fording, with 
11°0346 x 1 of Oxygen Hydrogen 
x4 = 44:1384 —Protoxide of ammonium, sup- 
posed to be Davy’s “ olive- 
coloured matter” 
x8 = 882768 Ammonia 
x 12=132°4152 Nitrogen 
x 24=264'8304 Nitrous oxide, or protoxide of 
nitrogen 
. x 36=397°2456 Nitric oxide, or oxide of ni- 
trogen 
*48=529°6608 Nitrous acid 
x 60=662'0760 Nitric acid 
x72=794'4912 Water ‘ i 
t 
