310 CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS 



Thus, a decomposition of alumina may be effected 

 with the greatest facility, when the affinity of char- 

 coal for oxygen, and of chlorine for aluminium, are 

 both put in action, although neither of these alone 

 has any influence upon it. There is in the nature 

 and constitution of the compounds of nitrogen a kind 

 of tension of their conlponent parts, and a strong 

 disposition to yield to transformations, which effect 

 spontaneously the transposition of their atoms on the 

 instant that water or its elements are brought in 

 contact with them. 



The characters of the hydrated cyanic acid, one 

 of the simplest of all the compounds of nitrogen, are 

 perhaps the best adapted to convey a distinct idea 

 of the manner in which the atoms are disposed of in 

 transformations. This acid contains nitrogen, hy- 

 drogen, and oxygen, in such proportions, that the 

 addition of a certain quantity of the elements of 

 water is exactly sufficient to cause the oxygen con- 

 tained in the water and acid to unite with the car- 

 bon and form carbonic acid, and the hydrogen of the 

 water to combine with the nitrogen and form am- 

 monia. The most favorable conditions for a com- 

 plete transformation are, therefore, associated in 

 these bodies, and it is well known, that the disunion 

 takes place on the instant in which the cyanic acid 

 and water are brought into contact, the mixture being 

 converted into carbonic acid and ammonia, with brisk 

 effervescence. 



This decomposition may be considered as the type 

 of the transformations of all azotized compounds; it 

 is putrefaction in its simplest and most perfect form, 

 because the new products, the carbonic acid and 

 ammonia, are incapable of further transformations. 



Putrefaction assumes a totally different and much 

 more complicated form, when the products, which are 

 first formed, undergo a further change. In these 

 cases the process consists of several stages, of which 

 it is impossible to determine when one ceases and 

 the other begins. 



