1813.] Azote, of Hydrogen, and of Ammonia. 357 



ammonia is composed of azote and hydrogen, than we can that 

 sugar is composed of carbonic oxide and hydrogen, or of carbon 

 and water ; because the very instant that these last substances 

 are formed the organic compound ceases to exist as such. 



In the present state of our knowledge we must consider 

 ammonia as the oxide of a compound radicle ; and the formula 

 expressing the composition of the radicle will be N + 3 H, and 



that for ammonia N H + O. It is easy to see that by this 

 explanation the phenomena presented by ammonia will cease to 

 be anomalous, and that the analogy of ammonia with other 

 bodies is perfectly restored. 



We have, then, two combustible bodies, which, by uniting 

 with hydrogen, produce compound and oxidable radicles; 

 namely, nitric and carbon. A radicle composed of nitric and 

 hydrogen constitutes the base of ammonia ; a radicle composed 

 of carbon and hydrogen constitutes the principal base of vegeta- 

 ble bodies ; a triple radicle composed of carbon, nitric, and 

 hydrogen, constitutes the base of animal bodies. It is by 

 varying on the one hand the proportions of the constituents of 

 the radicles, and on the other that of the degrees of oxidation, 

 that nature with so few elementary principles produces that pro- 

 digious diversity of organic products. 



What, then, is the amalgam produced by the decomposition 

 of ammonia ? Certainly not the ammonia itself combined with 

 hydrogen gas and mercury, as 'i henard and Gay-Lussac have 

 concluded from experiments far indeed from being conclusive:* 

 nor is there any other way of explaining tins phenomenon, at 

 once singular and perfectly analogous to what happens with the 

 other alkalies, than to consider the amalgam as composed of 

 mercury, and the radicle either of ammonia or of azote, though 

 the last is the least probable. If, on the other side, it is the 

 radicle of ammonia which is combined with mercury, we have 

 the lurious phenomenon of a compound metallic body. 



Before leaving this subject I trust I shall be permitted to draw 

 the attention of the reader to some circumstances relative to 

 ammonia and its compounds, which are v\cll deserving of consi- 

 deration : — 



1. How comes it that nitric, a body so strongly electro- 



• It was taken fer granted in these experiments that an ammoniacal 

 amalgam, formed in liquid ammonia, but afterwards fixed l>_, ;i kiiid of con- 

 gelation, ought to contain na water. It is easy to see how little force this 

 Argument of Gay-Lnssac and Thenard ought to have, when mercury itself in 

 ordinary circumstance! cannot be deprived of all tin - water with which it !■ 

 trated without being boiled. Yet in this amalgam, formed in the midst of 

 water, and ten times It m dense than mercury, a di absolute Js supposed 



to exist iiiui ii does mil contain water enough to oxidize the infiuitelj small 

 quuutity of metal combined with the mercury. 



