Manchester Memoirs, Vol. x/vzii (ig04), No. 14. 5 



ionisation, or possibly intermediate addition compounds 

 are formed with water by both ammonia and hydrochloric 

 acid. The electrolytic dissociation of sal-ammoniac and 

 ammonium hydrate is quite in accordance with the new 

 formula. Whereas according to the usual ammonium 

 theory, ammonium hydrate should dissociate in the same 

 way as potassium hydrate, 



NH4.0H = NH, + 0H. 

 As a matter of fact the degree of dissociation is exceed- 

 ingly small, resembling that of water, and Hautzsch has 

 shown {^Zeitschr. fur Phys. Chem., 30, 258) that the 

 dissociation takes place in the sense that water is split 

 off. This is to be expected if we write 



The almost complete electrolytic dissociation of sal- 

 ammoniac in dilute solution is equally well explained by 

 both theories, thus we have 



NH4CUNH4 + CI, 

 and 



(i) H3N = C1H->H3N + HC1. 



(2) HCI =H +C1, 



we get here a complex ion NH^. H, and there is, of course, 

 no evidence as yet which can decide between the ion 



NH4 and the more complex one NH3.H. 



The remaining halogen salts of ammonia are ana- 

 logously written, and the sulphides thus — 



IV. VI. 



H3N = SH,and(H3N),SH,. 

 My formula for ammonium hydrate 



is analogous to that of water Hp = OH3, of hydrogen 



