IS 13.] Azote, of Hydrogen, and of Ammonia. 365 



alkali decomposed. Of course this first conjecture was ill- 

 founded. I then had recourse to another explanation, namely, 

 that ammonia is the oxide of a metal, which metal, with a 

 smaller quantity of oxygen than exists in ammonia, constitutes 

 hydrogen ; and with a greater quantity, azote. I thought that 

 the electro-chemical difference between these two oxides might 

 he explained by a change in the original electric modification of 

 the metal. The quantity of oxygen in azote ought to be in a 

 determinate ratio to that in ammonia : and I found that if we 

 suppose that the radicle of the alkali combines with ]i times as 

 much oxygen in azote as in ammonia, then all the calculations 

 on the proportions of constituents, both in the alkali and in 

 azote, correspond in an admirable manner. 



As for the oxygen of hydrogen, I found that it was very diffi- 

 cult to prove either its existence or its quantity ; because the 

 oxygen of the azote in ammonia being subtracted from that ot 

 the alkali, there remained only a quantity so exceedingly small 

 that it does not exceed the difference exhibited by the most 

 careful experiments — a difference always occasioned by the im- 

 perfection of our methods. It was therefore doubtful whether 

 hydrogen contained oxygen or not ; and experiments did not 

 speedily promise to throw any light on the subject ; but I am 

 able at present to prove, in a manner that appears to me deci- 

 sive, that hydrogen contains no oxygen, and that none of our 

 calculations on the laws of chemical proportions gives us a right 

 to suspect that it contains any. 



Proofs of the non-existence of Oxygen in Hydrogen. 



1. Carbonic acid gas condenses twice its volume of ammo- 

 niacal gas, and forms subcarbonate of ammonia. 



2. This subcarbonate decomposes without effervescence the 

 nitrate of lead, and without altering the neutrality of the nitrate 

 which is in excess. The carbonate obtained and analysed is- 

 composed in such a manner that the carbonic acid contains 

 exactly twice as much oxygen as the oxide of lead. It follows 

 that if ammonia contains oxygen, two volumes of ammoniacal 

 gas contain just half as much oxygen as one volume of carbonic 

 acid ; that is to say, that ammonia contains exactly one-fourth 

 of its volume of oxygen gaS. 



3. Ammoniacal gas decomposed by electricity gives two vo- 

 lumes of gas, 1 | of which are hydrogen, and \ volume azotic 

 ga*. 



4. Azotic gas being an oxide, it follows that the oxygen which 

 it contains i- proportional to the additional quantities which it 



iIjs in the subsequent degrees of oxidation ; that is to say, 

 in order to become nitrous oxide gas. Now this ratio will he a 

 quantity equal, or double, or one-half. Let us suppose, at first. 



