SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF HYDROGEN GAS. ^5 



not be a singular anomaly, if water, which is 

 decomposed with considerable difficulty, should 

 consist of 1 atom oxygen united to 2 atoms 

 hydrogen, while the deutoxide, which parts with 

 half its oxygen very readily, consists of 1 atom 

 of oxygen united to 1 atom of hydrogen. This 

 is not the case with other compounds. Bi- 

 sulphate of potash may be deprived of half its 

 sulphuric acid by exposure to a strong red heat ; 

 but the other half (which constitutes with potash 

 the neutral compound) resists the highest tem- 

 perature which we can apply. 



2. Hydrogen unites with azote, carbon, phos- 

 phorus, and sulphur, as well as with oxygen, 

 and with some of these bodies it unites in more 

 than one proportion. But with none of these 

 bodies does it ever combine in a smaller pro- 

 portion than 0-125. Now, it would be a most 

 extraordinary phenomenon, if never less than two 

 atoms of this substance were to unite with an 

 atom of other bodies. The following table ex- 

 hibits the composition of a variety of bodies 

 containing hydrogen. 



HYDROGEN. 



Ammonia, composed of 1-75 azote +0-125 X 3 



Olefiant gas . . 75 carbon + 0-125 



Carburetted hydrogen . 0-?5 + 0-125 X 2 



Phosphuretted hydrogen . 1-5 phosphorus + 0-125 



Bihydroguret of phosphorus 1-5 +0-125X2 



Sulphuretted hydrogen . 2 sulphur +0-125 



1-75, O75, 1-5, and 2 represent the atomic 



