1818.] Combinations of Ammonia with Chlorides. 19 



blackened by exposure to light, though without liberating any 

 gas. Thrown into water the ammonia was separated, forming 

 a solution, and the chloride remained unchanged. Heated, 

 the whole of the ammonia was given off. Placed in chlorine 

 it inflamed spontaneously, and the ammonia was decomposed. 



Chloride of silver that had been well dried, but not fused, 

 gave the same compounds with ammonia, but in a much 

 shorter time. 



A strong solution of chloride of silver in ammonia was left 

 for some weeks in a bottle stopped only by a piece of paper. 

 At the end of that time several perfectly colourless and trans- 

 parent crystals had formed in it ; some of them being as much 

 as a quarter of an inch in width. Their general form was 

 that of a flat rhomboid, but sometimes two acute angles of the 

 rhomboid were wanting, and then the crystals looked like 

 hexahedral prisms with oblique bases. 



Exposed to the air, these crystals became opake, gradually 

 losing the whole of the ammonia, and were then so friable as 

 to fall into powder by a slight touch ; the substance remaining 

 was a dry chloride of silver. Placed in water, the same 

 change occurred, but more readily ; the water separated the 

 ammonia, and they instantly became opake. Heated, they 

 gave off much ammoniacal gas, and the chloride remained un- 

 altered. Exposed to light, they gradually blackened, though 

 covered by the solution from which they were deposited. 



If the ammoniacal solution be weak, other crystals are 

 formed which are pure chloride of silver. 



Dry corrosive sublimate placed in ammoniacal gas had 

 suffered no change in fourteen days, nor had any action been 

 exerted on the ammonia ; there was a diminution of a quarter 

 of a cubical inch of gas, probably owing to a little water being 

 present. The corrosive sublimate heated gave out no am- 

 monia, and the whole of the gas remaining was absorbed by 

 water. 



The precipitate obtained by adding ammonia to a solution 

 of corrosive sublimate appears to be a compound of the two 

 bodies, but the alkali is neutralized in this case, and it is 

 therefore more analogous to the combination of ammonia with 

 the chloride of tin. When the precipitate is distilled, it gives 

 off ammoniacal gas and also some azote, and the corrosive sub-' 



