SALTS OF AMMONIA. 175 



to confusion from the application of the term " salt-radical" 

 to the other constituent of the salt on the binary theory. It 

 may be useful, therefore, to have a specific expression for the 

 metallic radical of a salt, such as basyle, a term compounded 

 of base, which is applied to the oxide of the metal, and l\r h 

 nature or principle, a termination already adopted in particular 

 cases in the sense here given to it. Thus of sulphate of soda, 

 soda is the base and sodium the basyle ; and on the binary 

 theory, sulphatoxygen being the salt-radical, sodium is still the 

 basyle of the same salt. But the necessity for such a term is 

 chiefly occasioned by the extension which has been made by 

 chemists of their views respecting saline combination to the 

 compounds of ammonia, and to the great class of bodies called 

 ethers, in which the existence of a compound basyle is re- 

 cognized discharging the function of the simple metallic radi- 

 cal in ordinary salts. 



Salts of Ammonia. Ammonia is a gaseous compound of one 

 atom of nitrogen and three of hydrogen, of which the solution 

 in water is caustic and alkaline, and which neutralizes acids 

 perfectly, as potash and soda do. But all its oxygen-acid 

 salts contain, besides ammonia, an atom of water which is 

 essential to them, and inseparable without the destruction of 

 the salt ; and with this additional constituent, they are isomor- 

 phous with the salts of potash. Hydro-chloric acid also unites 

 with ammonia without losing its hydrogen, and the compound 

 or hydrochlorate of ammonia, which is isomorphous with the 

 chloride of potassium, contains, therefore, an atom of hydro- 

 gen, besides chlorine and ammonia. Now, on the theory of 

 these salts, the ammonia with this hydrogen or that of the 

 water in the oxygen-acid salts, constitutes a hypothetical radi- 

 cal or basyle, ammonium, (NH 4 ), to which allusion has already 

 been made as being isomorphous with potassium. This view 

 of the constitution of the salts of ammonia will be made 

 obvious by a few examples. 



ON THE AMMONIUM THEORY. 



Hydrochlorate of ammonia, NH 3 ,HC1. Chloride of ammonium, NH 4 , Cl. 

 Sulphate of ammonia, NH 3 HO, S0 3 . Sulphate of oxide of ammonium, 



NH 4 O, SO 3 . 



Nitrate of ammonia, NH 3 HO, NO 5 . Nitrate of oxide of ammonium, NH 4 O, 



N0 5 . 



