1 58 hitelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



5th. Nitrous and nitric oxides, hyponitric and nitric acids mixed 

 Avith a sufficient quantity of hydrogen, are converted into ammonia by 

 their contact with spongy platina, and frequently without even the as- 

 sistance of heat. The action is frequently so energetic that violent 

 explosion ensues. All the azote of these oxides or acids passes to 

 the state of ammonia, by combining with the hydrogen. An excess 

 of nitric acid gives nitrate of ammonia. 



6th. Cyanogen and hydrogen give hydrocyanate of ammonia. 



7th. Olefiant gas and excess of nitric oxide, when hot and passed 

 over spongy platina, produce carbonate and hydrocyanate of am- 

 monia and water. 



Sth. With nitric oxide and excess of the vapour of alcohol, there 

 are obtained under the same circumstances, the same compounds as 

 above, and olefiant gas and a deposit of carbon. 



9th. Free azote could not be combined with free hydrogen, but all 

 the compounds of azote were converted into ammonia by hydrogen, 

 either free or carburetted. 



10th. In the last-mentioned reactions the presence of carbon in 

 combination with azote or with hydrogen, occasions the formation 

 of hydrocyanic acid. 



lltli. All the gaseous or vaporizable metalloids, without any ex- 

 ception, combine with hydrogen under the influence of spongy pla- 

 tina. 



r2th. The vapours of nitric acid mixed with hydrogen are totally 

 converted into acetic aether, and water, at a moderate temperature. 



M. Kuhlmann remarks that when precipitated platina (noir de 

 platine) is substituted for spongy platina, the action is infinitely less 

 energetic in the greater number of cases, which is the reverse of what 

 might be expected. The precipitated platina has indeed no power in 

 producing nitric acid, and it is very weak in producing ammonia, and 

 it never becomes incandescent as happens with spongy^ platina ; but 

 in converting acetic acid into aether, the action of precipitated pla- 

 tina is on the contrary more quick, and produces it even at common 

 temperatures. 



It has been subsequently remarked that Berzelius has before stated 

 that when nitric oxide is mixed with hydrogen gas, and the mixture 

 exposed to partly calcined spongy platina, water and ammonia are 

 gradually formed, on account of the union of the hydrogen with both 

 the elements of the nitric oxide. — Traite de Chemie, ii. 43-44. 

 L'Jnstitut, No. 261—262. 



ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY. 



Lectures on the Properties and Natural History of the Mineral 

 Substances employed in the Arts of Architecture and Sculpture ; 

 by E. W. Brayley, Jun., F.L.S., F.G.S., Corr. Mem. Roy. Geol. 

 Soc. of Cornwall, &c. 



These lectures will be continued at the Apartments of the Archi- 

 tectural Society, 35, Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the following evenings, 

 at 8 o'clock. 



