FORMATION OF NITRITE OF AMMONIA. 327 



this reaction the nitrogen of the atmospliere, by a kind 

 of mduction, combines with three equivalents of water, 

 wliereby on the one hand nitrous acid, and on the other 

 ammonia, are formed ; just as is well known that under 

 the influence of a higher temperature, nitrite of ammonia 

 is decomposed into water and nitrogen gas. The most 

 striking fact is, this salt is formed under circumstances 

 which we should have been led to suppose were precisely 

 those opposed to its formation ; but the production of 

 the peroxide of hydrogen (so easily decomposed by 

 heat), during the slow oxidation of a3ther, which is at- 

 tended by a perceptible evolution of heat, is a fact not 

 less certain, and hitherto equally unexplained. 



The formation of nitrite of ammonia during this slow 

 process of oxidation made it probable that it takes place 

 everywhere on the earth's surface where oxygen enters 

 mto combination ; and consequently that the same pro- 

 cess, whereby carbon is converted into carbonic acid, 

 forms also an ever-renewing source of nitrogenous food 

 for plants. 



Soon afterwards, Kolbe showed (' Annal. d. Chem. u. 

 Pharm.' bd. 119, s. 176) that if a flame of hydrogen gas 

 is allowed to burn in the open neck of a flask containing 

 oxygen, the interior is filled with the red fumes of nitrous 

 acid.* 



Fiu-ther, Boussingault observed that, in the consump- 

 tion of common illuminating gas, the water in Lenoir's 

 gas machine contained ammonia and nitric acid ; and 

 shortly after, Bottger mentioned, in the * Amiual Eeport 

 of the Physical Society of Frankfort' (meeting of Nov. 2, 

 1861), that, according to his experiments, not only in the 

 case of hydrogen, but generally when liydro-carl)ons 



* The formation of nitrous acid in eudionietrical cxperinicnt.s was 

 already known. 



