52 ON NITROGEN AJiTi AMMONIA. 



of yV*> 8nd if the smallest proportion be taken the loss will 

 be nearly -,V* 



These results and calculations agree with those that I 

 have before given, and with those of Dr. Henry. 



The lately discovered facts in chemistry, concerni^ng the 

 important modifications which bodies may undergo by very 

 slight additions or subtractions of new matter, ought to 

 render us cautious in deciding upon the nature of the pro- 

 cess of the electrical decomposition of ammonia. 

 Probably am- It \s possible, that the minute quantity of oxigen, which 

 nioma com- appears to be separated, is not accidental, but a result of 

 posed ot hidro- , . . . i r i • i i • 



gen & nitrogen the decomposition; and if hidrogen and nitrogen be both 



^^'''y- oxides of the same basis, the possibility of the production of 



different proportions of water, in different operations, might 

 account for the variations observed in some cases in their re- 

 lative proportions ; but on the whole, the idea that ammonia 

 is decomposed into hidrogen and nitrogen alone, by elec- 

 tricity, and that the loss of weight is no more than is to be 

 expected in processes of so delicate a kind, is, in my opinion, 

 the most defensible view of the subject. 

 What is the But if ammonia be capable of decomposition into nitro- 

 af The l^oUtile gen and hidrogen, what, it will be asked, is the nature of 

 alkali? the matter existing in the amalgam of ammonia? what is 



the metallic basis of the volatile alkali ? These are ques- 

 tions, intimately connected with the whole of the arrange- 

 ments of chemistry ; and they are questions, which, as our 

 instruments of experiment now exist, it will not, £ fear, be 

 easy to solve. 

 Water always I l»'»ve stated in my former communication on the amal- 

 adheres to it, gam from ammonia, that, under all the common circum- 

 stances of its production, it seems to preserve a quantity of 

 water adhering to it, which may be conceived to be suf- 

 ficient to oxidate the metal, and to reproduce the ammo- 

 nia. 



I have tried various devic es, with the hopes of beino- able 



* 100 of ammonia, at the rate of 1S5, will give 136-9 of hidrogen, 

 weighing 3-1 grains, and4Sl of uitrogen weighing 14-33 grains; but 

 "■ 18-4 — 174 = 1: and at the rate of 180, 133 of hidrogen weighing 

 ".-JO-J, and 47 of nitrogen, weighing 14; and 18-4 — .]7 = i'4. 



to 



