308 CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS 



out of the sphere of attraction in which alone they 

 are able to exist. 



There are, indeed, bodies destitute of nitrogen, 

 which possess a certain degree of stability only 

 when in combination, but which are unknown in an 

 isolated condition, because their elements, freed from 

 the power by which they were held together, arrange 

 themselves according to their own natural attrac- 

 tions. Hypermanganic, manganic, and hyposulphu- 

 rous acids, belong to this class of substances, which 

 however are rare. 



The case is very different with azotized bodies. 

 It would appear that there is some peculiarity in the 

 nature of nitrogen, which gives its compounds the 

 power to decompose spontaneously with so much 

 facility. Now, nitrogen is known to be the most 

 indifferent of all the elements ; it evinces no partic- 

 ular attraction to any one of the simple bodies; and 

 this character it preserves in all its combinations, a 

 character which explains the cause of its easy sep- 

 aration from the matters with which it is united. 



It is only when the quantity of nitrogen exceeds 

 a certain limit, that azotized compounds have some 

 degree of permanence, as is the case with melamin, 

 ammelin, &c. Their liability to change is also dimin- 

 ished, when the quantity of nitrogen is very small 

 in proportion to that of the other elements with 

 which it is united, so that their mutual attractions 

 preponderate. 



This easy transposition of atoms is best seen in 

 the fulminating silvers, in fulminating mercury, in 

 the iodide or chloride of nitrogen, and in all fulmin- 

 ating compounds. 



All other azotized substances acquire the same 

 power of decomposition, when the elements of water 

 are brought into play; and indeed, the greater part 

 of them are not capable of transformation, while 

 this necessary condition to the transposition of their 

 atoms is absent. Even the compounds of nitrogen, 

 which are most liable to change, such as those which 



