468 REPORT—1 883. 
sponge was heated to bright redness by the gas blowpipe for half an hour, a dull 
red heat being employed in the other cases. In none of these experiments was the 
slightest trace of ammonia formed. 
Another series of experiments was performed with different apparatus. A glass 
U tube was made, with one arm much longer than the other. The end of the 
shorter arm was sealed, and some spongy platinum placed in the sealed end. The 
open end of the tube. was made to dip under a solution of potassium pyrogallate. 
By means of a flexible tube, air was removed from the longer limb, until only 
20 ce. of air remained in the tube. It was allowed to stand over the alkaline 
pyrogallate till all the oxygen was absorbed. After replacing the pyrogallate in 
the longer limb by pure water, hydrogen was added by holding a pellet of sodium 
under the open end of the tube. The spongy platinum was heated, sometimes by 
a Bunsen lamp and sometimes by the gas-blowpipe. When the tube was cool, 
Nessler’s solution was passed up the longer limb by a bent pipette, and owing to 
the peculiar shape of the tube, it could be shaken about in the gas without wetting 
the spongy platinum. In no case was ammonia formed. 
Mr. Johnston found that ammonia was produced when hydrogen and the gas 
obtained by heating ammonium nitrite were passed over heated platinum sponge. 
Tt is known that oxides of nitrogen are produced by the decomposition of ammo- 
nium nitrite, together with nitrogen gas. To free the nitrogen from these oxides, 
Mr. Johnston used an elaborate absorbing apparatus. After leaving the absorbers 
of nitric oxide, it was mixed with hydrogen and passed through three wash- 
bottles of ferrous sulphate solution, and then over the heated platinum sponge. 
The amount of ammonia was less by one half than that produced in the former 
experiment. Before mixing with the nitrogen, the hydrogen was passed through 
a wash-bottle of silver nitrate. This introduces a new source of error, Hydrogen 
decomposes a solution of nitrate of silver with evolution of oxides of nitrogen. 
The author made some experiments to see if the three wash-hbottles of ferrous sul- 
phate, used by Mr. Johnston, were adequate for the removal of these oxides. He 
found that they were not. 
It may be concluded, therefore, that all the ammonia produced in Mr. Johnston’s 
experiments was the product of the reaction between hydrogen and an oxide of 
nitrogen, under the influence of spongy platinum. Hydrogen, therefore, does not 
unite directly with nitrogen when the mixed gases are passed over heated spongy 
platinum. Consequently, as far as our present evidence goes, we must regard Mr. 
Johnston’s statement that nitrogen exists in two allotropic modifications as having 
no foundation. 
3. On the Decomposing Action that Chloride of Aluminium exerts on 
Hydrocarbons. By Professors C. Frimprt and J. M. Crarts. 
The authors began by calling to mind their previous researches showing that the 
synthesis of hydrocarbons, and of ketones, may be effected by the action of aluminic 
chloride on amixture of an aromatic hydrocarbon with the chloride of a hydrocarbon 
radical, or of an acid radical, and that the anhydrides of acids, and even oxygen 
and sulphur, enter into similar reactions with aromatic hydrocarbons. 
In the course of these investigations they observed that aluminic chloride exerts 
a decomposing action on complex hydrocarbons, and it is this action that they have 
now examined more in detail, in the hope that it might throw some light on the 
mechanism of the synthetic action of aluminic chloride. 
Naphthalin was distilled with 25 per cent. aluminic chloride, when the distillate 
was found to consist of benzol and hydrides ofnaphthalin, and a carbonaceous residue 
remained, The hydrides are partly soluble in sulphuric acid, the insoluble portion 
contains a large proportion of C,,H,,, or C,,H,,, and this hydrocarbon boils at 
about 188°. 
The portion boiling between 204° and 206° appears on analysis to be C,,H,,. 
