464 transactions of the american institute. 



Nitrous Oxide. 



This compound was discovered by Dr. Priestly, in 1776. It is 

 gaseous at ordinary temperatures, but may be reduced to the 

 liquid state, under a pressure of 750 pounds per square inch, at 

 45° Fah. At about 150° below zero, it becomes a solid, without 

 the aid of pressure; and boils at 126°. A single drop of the 

 liquid upon the skin will wound it like a burn. The solid, mixed 

 in vacuo with the bisulphide of carbon, produces the most intense 

 cold, equal to 240° F. or 140° Cent. 



Gaseous nitrous oxide is colorless and transparent, and has a 

 slight Ij- sweetish taste, and an agreeable odor. Estimating the 

 atomatic weight of oxygen at 16, instead of 8, this gas consists of 

 two atoms of nitrogen and one of oxygen ; formerly eight 

 was the combining number of ox^^geu, and as the combining 

 proportions were in this view equal, the gas was called the pro- 

 toxide of nitrogen; under the new atomic weights it is a sub-oxide. 

 Reckoning an atom of nitrogen weighing 14 by the letter n. and 

 an atom of oxygen by the letter t, and prefixing vowels in their 

 regular order to distinguish the number of atoms employed, 

 according to the new chemical nomenclature, we would express 

 solid nitrous oxide by the word enat, signifying two atoms of 

 nitrogen and one atom of oxygen, and nitrous oxide gas. by genat. 

 Common air is an impure mechanical mixture of these two gases, 

 and contains about four volumes or atoms of nitrogen to one 

 volume or atom of oxygen. Thus it will be seen that nitrous 

 oxide contains about twice the quantity of oxygen found in an 

 equal bulk of common air. The relative quantity of these gases 

 m all their known combinations, without the presence of any 

 other element, will be readily comprehended by the following 

 new names : 



Proportion- 

 Protoxide of nitrogen or nitrous oxide enat, 2 to 1. 



Deutoxide of nitrogen or nitric oxide enet, 1 to 1. 



Nitrous anhydride enit, 2 to 3. 



Peroxide of nitrogen enot or anet, 1 to 2. 



Nitric anhidride enut, 2 to 5. 



The higher oxides part with their oxygen very rapidly in the 

 presence of most of the other elementary substances, but nitrous 

 oxide in the gaseous state has no immediate disorganizing effect 

 upon the human body. 



