AZOTIC GAS. 125 



peated with great care by M. Berthollet junior, 

 Sir H. Davy, and Dr. Henry.* What I have 

 just stated, is the obvious deduction from these 

 elaborate and difficult experiments. As in azo- 

 tic and hydrogen gases, volumes are equivalent 

 to atoms, it follows that ammonia is a compound 

 of 



1 atom azote = 175 



3 atoms hydrogen = 0-375 



2-125 



So that its atomic weight is 2*125, its atomic 



Ammoniacal gas has been shown to be a com- 

 pound of one volume azotic and three volumes 

 hydrogen gas, condensed into two volumes. Its 

 specific gravity, of course, will be obtained by 

 adding together the specific gravity of azotic 

 gas, and three times the specific gravity of hy- 

 drogen gas, and dividing the sum by two. This 

 gives us O59027 for the true specific gravity of 

 this gas. 



Sir H. Davy took the specific gravity of this 

 gas with great care, and obtained for a result 



* Dr. Henry, in a paper on the Analysis of the Aeriform Compounds of 

 Nitrogen, printed in 1824, but not yet published, has repeated the analysis 

 of ammonia with still greater care, and has obtained results which scarcely 

 differ from those in the text. The ammoniacal gas was doubled by the 

 electric sparks, and the gas, thus increased in volume, was found a mixture 

 of one volume azotic and three volumes hydrogen gas. 



Dr. Henry's analyses of protoxide of azote, deutoxide of azote, and nitric 

 acid, fully confirm the statements in the preceding part of tliis chapter. 



