250 Sir H. Davy*s further Ohseruations 



of a substance uniting to four proportions of another substance, 

 without some intermediate compound of 1 and 1, 1 and 2, and 

 1 and 3 ; and the fact should render us cautious in adopting 

 hypothetical views of the composition of bodies from the rela- 

 tions of the quantities in which they combine. Those who argue 

 that there must be one proportion of oxygen in azote, because 

 there ought to be six proportions in nitric acid, instead of five, 

 which are produced from it by analysis, might with full as 

 much propriety contend, that there must be azote in chlorine 

 in some simple multiple of that existing in the compound. » 



It may be useful to shew, that many hypotheses may be 

 framed upon the same principles ; and which, consequently, 

 must be equally uncertain. Views of this nature may be im- 

 portant in directing the practical chemist in his researches ; 

 but the philosopher should carefully avoid the developement 

 of them with confidence, and the confounding them with prac- 

 tical results. 



The compound of chlorine and azote agrees with the com- 

 pounds of the same substance with sulphur, phosphorus, and 

 the metals, in being a non-conductor of electricity ; and these 

 compounds are likewise decomposable by heat, though they 

 require that of Voltaic electricity. 



Sulphur combines only in one proportion with chlorine; and 

 hence the action of Sulphurane, or Dr. Thomson's muriatic 

 liquor upon water, like that of the new compound, is not a 

 simple phenomenon of double decomposition. 



It seems proper to designate this new body by some name: 

 Azotane is the term that would be applied to it, according to 

 my ideas of its analogy to the other bodies which contain 

 chlorine ; but I am not desirous, in the present iniperfect and 



