1814.] On the Composition of Azote. 365 



degree of time that my professional avocations could allow me to 

 devote to these interesting pursuits. 



Your valuable paper in N° XIV. p. 1H4, of the Annals, could not 

 but raise my attention ; and as tiie pleasing gratification of seeing 

 removed vour objections to the compound nature of azote, and as 

 the determinations at which you have now arrived correspond so 

 exactly with those 1 had long since deduced, 1 thought it proper, 

 as you have so justly called upon me to fulfil my promise, to delay 

 no longer transmitting you the annexed table, with the su' sequent 

 observations. The singular coincidence of the various proportions, 

 all agreeing so closely with your recent determinations, with those 

 of Berzelius, and with the results of experiment, cannot fail to 

 excite the attention of chemists ; and if the facts which 1 hope 

 shortly to make known to you should be considered decisive, I shall 

 feel proud tliat my humble exertions can have in any way contributed 

 to the advancement of the immortal work in which you are so 

 pre-eminently engaged. The mere table by itself is a very strong 

 presumptive evidence of the composition of azote, and must strike 

 the most casual observer of the exact coincidence of calculation 

 with experiment ; but if, still farther, it be placed beyond doub^ 

 by the decisive test of fact, electro - chemical science will' 

 receive a new light, and the atomic theory will gain a fresh 

 accession of strength, as the cause of the infinitely numberless 

 chemical combinations will be more readily conceived when we 

 perceive so many various compounds formed of two kinds of simple 

 fttoms only. 



