"19$ 0N THE WATER IN MURIATE OF AMMONIA. 



Faitherre- regard to the ultimate results of the experiments. s The 

 Subject. " the< l» esti on 1" this point of view is not how carbonic acid is 

 formed, whether directly or indirectly, but whether it is 

 formed at all. Messrs. Davies affirmed, in contradiction 

 to what 1 stated, that it is not formed. Mr. J. Davy now 

 admits, that it is formed; and he may account as he is able 

 for these opposite assertions: or, to remove the slight 

 ambiguity which arises from involving the statement of the 

 fact of the production of carbonic acid with the inquiry as 

 to the manner in which it is produced, let the question be 

 restricted to the effect on the carbonic oxide. I had 

 uniformly affirmed, that it disappears. Messrs. Davies 

 asserted, as the results of repeated experiments, that it 

 remains unchanged*. But Mr. J. Davy now tells us, 

 that it does disappear, so that no traces of it can be dis- 

 covered after the addition of ammonia. On this I shall 

 offer no comment, but rest satisfied with the simple state- 

 ment of the fact; and if Mr. J. Davy after this thinks 

 proper to repeat his assertions on the accuracy of his and 

 his brother's experiments, and on the inaccuracy of mine, 

 I shall certainly not feel it incumbent on me to take any 

 notice of them. Allow me to add, that I regret having 

 been compelled to make these observations; but I conceive 

 I should be wanting in what I owe to myself, did 1 not 

 repel assertions so injurious and unwarranted; and I believe 

 I have done $o in terms less severe than what the occasion 

 might justify. 



What farther relates to the general reasening on this 

 controversy, I leave altogether to the judgment of your 

 ;.,,.,.,>- readers. Mr. J. Davy « confesses himself totally at a loss 

 ....>-. not a to understand" how I have shown what he calls the theory 

 of his brother (though strictly speaking it is entitled to 

 m/.ther of these appellations) to bean hypothesis: he still 

 considers it he informs us as an expression of facts in all its 

 essential parts, to the exclusion of hypothesis; and I have 

 advanced it seems no arguments, that have not been 

 answered. 



1 had supposed Mr. J. Davy to have been peculiarly 

 u j'ortunate in his attempts to answer these arguments; and 



* Journal, vol. XXVI II, p. 201, vol. XXIX, pp. 42, 235. 



had 



