Gasses experi- 

 mented on. 



372 N EW METHOD OF ANALYSING AMMONIA. 



bonand hidro- cupicd much of my attention ; viz. the effect of electricity 

 •on the aeriform compounds of carbon and hidrogen. Sub- 

 sequent reflection, as well as the candid and judicious 

 criticisms of various writers *, have influenced me to doubt 

 of the accuracy of a few of the conclusions drawn from my 

 former inquiries f . The knowledge of this class of bodies 

 has, also, been so materially advanced during the last twelve 

 years, that the examination of their properties may now be 

 undertaken with much greater confidence of success than 

 formerly. It is to be lamented, indeed, that experimentalists 

 do not oftener retrace their labours, with the combined ad- 

 vantages of acquired skill, and of a more improved state of 

 the science which they investigate. 



The gasses, submitted by Mr. Dalton and myself to the 

 action of long continued electrization, were carburetted 

 hidrogen from pit-coal of the specific gravity of ahout 650 

 (air being 1000), olefiaut gas, and carbonic oxide. Each 

 gas was used in as pure a state as possible; muriate of lime 

 being first introduced into the same tubes in which the 

 gasses were electrified, and being withdrawal when it had 

 exerted its full action. Platina wires were used to convey 

 the electric discharges. 



When the electrization of carburetted hidrogen or defiant 

 gas was continued sufficiently long, they were each found 

 to expand, notwithstanding their extreme dryness. No car- 

 bonic acid could be discovered in the electrified gas by the 

 nicest tests. When fired with oxigen, it gave less carbonic 

 acid than the unexpanded gas, and required less oxigen for 

 saturation. Calculating, from the diminished product of 

 carbonic acid, how much gas had been decomposed by elec- 

 trization, it appeared tbat the decomposed part, in all cases, 

 was about doubled. The smaller product of carbonic acid 

 from the electrified gas was sufficiently explained by a depo- 



Carbu retted 

 hidrogen and 

 olefiant gas. 



* See Berthollet's Chemical Statics, Eng. trans., Vol. II, p. 

 -454.; Murray's Elements of Chemistry, Vol. II, Note G ; a letter 

 from an anonymous correspondent in Nicholson's Journal, 8vo, II, 

 185; and Aikin's Dictionary of Chemistry, I, 251. 



f " Experiments on Carbonated Hidrogen Gas, with a View to 

 determine whether Carbon be a simple or a compound body." 

 Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXVII. 



sition 



