Chemical Nomenclature of Berzelius. 259 
Calcic superoxide.(33) » Peroxide of calcium. 
Strontianic oxide,(34)(strontiana.) Protoxide of strontium, (strontia.) 
Strontianic superoxide. Peroxide of strontium. 
Barytic oxide, (baryta.) Protoxide of barium. 
Barytic superoxide. ° Peroxide of barium. 
Lithic oxide, (lithina.)(d) Oxide of lithium, (lithia.) 
Sodic suboxide.(35) 
Sodic oxide, (soda.) ~ Protoxide of sodium. 3 
Sodic superoxide. Peroxide of sodium. 
Potassic suboxide.- 
Potassic oxide, (potassa.) Protoxide of potassium. 
Potassic superoxide. Peroxide of potassium. 
COMBINATIONS OF NITROGEN. 
Ammonia, (trihydric nitruret.) (36) 
Ammonium, (tetrahydric nitruret.) 
Cyanogen, (carbonic nitruret.) (37) 
(83) Obtained as a hydrate, by dropping lime water slowly into a solution of the 
deutoxide of hydrogen.— Trans. 
(84) The French translation has strontiane, and as Berzelius preserves the an in 
its combination, it cannot with propriety be rendered strontia.—Trans. 
(6) The remarks in note 33 apply also to this’ case. 
(85) The compounds of both sodium and potassium, ranked by Berzelius as sub- 
oxides, are supposed by the English chemists to be mixtures of the respective metals 
with their protoxides.— Trans. 
(86) To explain the nomenclature of the compounds of nitrogen with hydrogen, 
we must refer to the peculiar views of Berzelius in relation to the amalgam formed 
by ammonia, when acted upon by galvanism, in contact with mercury. He sup- 
poses that when a solution of ammonia is exposed to galvanic action, in contact with 
mercury, water is decomposed; the oxygen escapes, while the hydrogen converts 
the ammonia into a metal, ammonium. This metal may, therefore, be represented 
by ammonia, with an additional volume of hydrogen. When the amalgam is expo- 
sed to the action of water, out of the galvanic circuit, the ammonia combines with 
the water, liberating hydrogen gas. This view Berzelius supports by a reference 
to the experiment of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, in which the ammoniacal amalgam 
being admitted into a Torricellian vacuum was resolved into ammonia, hydrogen 
and mercury: the hydrogen, however, was less in bulk than is required by the 
theory. 
Ammonia, being composed of one volume of nitrogen and three volumes of hy- 
drogen, receives the name of trihydric nitruret, while the ammonium, represented 
by ammonia with an additional volume of hydrogen, is called tetrahydric nitruret.— 
Trans. 
(37) The English chemists consider cyanogen to be a bicarburet of nitrogen, 
composed of two volumes of the vapor of carbon and one volume of nitrogen, con- 
densed into one volume. This composition is inferred from the fact that one volume 
