274 On definite Proportions. 
it forms with it is a [positiye] substance. In water neither 
of the electrical powers seems to prevail, since it holds an 
intermediate place between acids and alkalis. In the nitric 
acid, on the other hand, the oxygen, or at Jeast a great part 
of it, retains all its [negative] powers, and consumes com- 
bustible bodies with the same appearances as oxygen: 
hence the nitrogen has so slight an affinity for this portion 
of oxygen, that all other combustible bodies take it away. 
When ammonia is resolved by electrical shocks into hy- 
drogen and nitrogen, the substances, which, according to 
these views, are its true component parts, are separated in 
such a proportion, that exactly 2 parts of ammonium form 
Nitrogen with 2% or *96 of the whole oxygen, and 1 part 
of ammonium with {,, or ‘04 of the oxygen, makes hy- 
drogen. The ‘96 of oxygen must take with it a corre- 
sponding quantity of [positive] electrical power, which it 
had saturated in ammonia, so that only !; is left for the 
ammonium in hydrogen. Hence the ammonium in hy- 
drogen retains only ,8, or 4 as much [positive] electricity 
as originally belonged to it. When ‘ hydrogen gas 1s 
formed from ammonium,” it receives a new addition of 
[positive] electricity, which however is not sufficient to 
give it a clear and distinct charaeter as a base. It appears 
therefore that hydrogen and nitrogen cannot be produced 
in this experiment, without neutralizing corresponding 
portions of electricity, the former [negative], the latter [po- 
sitive]. And since we must no longer disregard the opera- 
tion of electricity in every chemical phenomenon, it is clear 
that the same cause, which produces chemical separations 
or combinatiéns in the column, must also co-operate in 
similar appearances in other cases, and that nitrogen and 
hydrogen can never be formed without neutralising, or 
fixing their appropriate electricities. If now water is de- 
composed by combustible bodies, these bodies afford a part 
of their [positive] electricity to the hydrogen which is 
formed, and with another part they more completely satu- 
rate the [negative] qualities of the oxygen which had pre- 
viously been contained in the water; and since here [posi- 
tive] electricity only is employed, hydrogen, only can be 
generated. And, in these operations, the electricities, being 
subject to the same laws with ponderable substances, re- 
specting the proportions in which they combine, are never 
set at liberty, so that their chemical effects have escaped 
the observation of natural philosophers of former times. 
What I have already adduced sufficiently shows, that no 
substance can form nitrogen from water. The nitric ghey 
an 
