NITRATE CHLORIDE RATIO. 191 



allowing for a proper loss of the dried, so as to take the fused 

 as the true condition of stiver nitrate, the existing chemical 

 determinations give for the atomic weight of nitrogen, 

 practically exactly the {$th of the value of the atomic weight 

 of oxygen used in the reduction. 



Hence, the atomic weight of nitrogen, in the common 

 way of reduction, taking all determinations, is |$ of that 

 of oxygen. 



But we know, that the silver nitrate is not, even when 

 fused, fit for accurate atomic weight determinations. 

 Indeed, the atomic weight of silver used above, namely, 

 107.108 when divided by 108 gives the quotient 0.9918 which 

 is about 7 ten -thousandths below the one resulting from 

 both N and O above. 



This shows that in these syntheses the error has been 

 thrown on the atomic weight of silver, by Clarke and by Stas. 



As to the determination No. 6 of Stas, the diagram shows 

 the false values given by Stas himself, and also the true ones 

 obtained by us in reducing the actual weighings exactly as 

 demanded by the real conditions prevailing and manifest in 

 the other determinations. That is, I do not believe that Stas 

 made determination No. 6 at the bottom of a pit 4000 meters 

 deep, nor in a room cooled 200 degrees centigrade below the 

 freezing point of water. 



b. The Silver Nitrate and Potassium Chloride Ratio. 



This series of determinations is contained in the Recher- 

 ches in the Bulletin of the Belgian Academy for 1860, pp. 

 290-293, and in Aronstein's Translation, pp. 306-308; it is 

 reprinted in the first volume of the Works of STAS, issued 

 1894, on pp. 379-381. 



By Clarke (1897), the analytical ratios are given on page 

 65, and the final results for the atomic weight of nitrogen 

 on pp. 70-71. We shall here again refer to Clarke for the 

 analytical ratios, and take his atomic weights for Ag, O, 

 Ka and Cl for our calculations, exactly as we did for the 

 synthesis of silver nitrate. 



