OK GALVANISM. OD 



trnth, when exempt from the shackles of iheory. Upon con- Fact and ob~ 

 (Icnsing Jiitiogen gas upon lime, he procured the nitrate of ^^pj^^^^^i^^, ^f 

 lime. In this experiment then, he procurer! the nitric acid, the theory of 

 nhich he could not do in his former experiments, and there 

 was no oxigen here to unite with the nit rogee. This directly 

 confirms my opinion hinted al in my last, that this nitrogen 

 gas was formed of the nitric acid, and the combustible anima^ 

 matter; for Dr. Priestley only procured from the nitric acid 

 and muscular fibre, nitrous gas, but when he exposed the in- 

 gredients to heat, he procured less nitrous gas, and when the 

 acid was much diluted with water, and heat applied, he pro- 

 cured azote (nitrogen.) See his Experiments, vol. ii. begin- 

 ning at p. 147. Also to shew what effect heat has upon the&e 

 nitrous gases, Dr. Priestley, vol. iii. p. 328, in heating the 

 nitrous oxide in malleable iron, says the bulk of the air was 

 cncreased, and become all phlogisticated air (nitrogen). Now 

 ■when nitrogen was compressed on lime there was no oxigen to 

 form it hito the nitric acid, but the fire which the lime pos- 

 sessed set fire to the combustible matter it was united tO» 

 which appears from its violent explosion," 



Experiment 9. He also compressed nitrogen gas upon the 

 gasCous oxide of carbone, and nitrous acid was formed : now in 

 this experiment there was no oxigen, but if he had com- 

 pressed nitrogen gas upon the carbonic acid gas, he would 

 have formed no nitric acid as I found. 



His observations that nitrogen is the cause of explosions, are 

 not just; for the strongest gunpowder is made of the ox-muriatc 

 of potash, instead of nitre, also phosphorus and sulphur ex- 

 plode when melted underwater; besides many other exam- 

 ples in chemistry. 



Mr. Northmore's experiments on the compressions of the 

 oxiginatcd muriatic acid gas, are also very valuable, it be- 

 comes more concentrated, which adds, as he observes, to its 

 pungency, and its volatility. But what will appear extraor- 

 dinary to the advocates of the Lavoisieran theory, — when I 

 compressed either atmospheric air or oxigen gas upon the oxi- 

 genatcd muriatic acid gas, they became injured, decompound- 

 ing each other ; the same effect as nitrous gas would have had 

 ftnd the oxigenated muriatic gas became the liquid muriatic 

 acid. That compressing hydrogen %ipon the oxigenated mu-. 



riatic 



