ETERS ais So al ae ga ear i Si ela 
‘ 
S. W. Johnson on Nitrification. 237 
were exposed to acurrent of air at the temperatures just named, 
ammonia was at once indicated by Nessler’s test. Nitrous 
acid, however, could be detected, if at all, in the minutest traces 
onl > 
y. 
The reader should observe that Boettger and Schénbein, find- 
ing in the first instance by the exceedingly sensitive test with 
KI and starch-paste, that nitrous acid was formed, when hy- 
drogen burned in the air, while the water thus generated was 
neutral in its reaction with the vastly less sensitive litmus test- 
paper, concluded that the nitrous acid was united with some 
se in the form of a neutral salt. Afterward, the detection of 
ammonia appeared to demonstrate the formation of nitrite of 
ammonia, Schinbein’s explanation of the mode in which this 
salt may be generated, viz., by the direct union of water 
and nitrogen, seems to have perfectly satisfied the chemical 
critics.* 
way of probability. If traces of nitrite of ammonia can be pro 
tures, or at the boiling point of water, or lastly in close prox- 
i i , then it is simply incon- 
ceivable that a good share of the atmosphere should not 
speedily dissolve in the ocean, for the conditions of Schén- 
bein’s experiments prevail at all times and at all places so far 
as these substances are concerned, : : 
The discovery of Zabelin that ammonia and nitrous acid 
do not always appear in equivalent quantities or even simulta- 
neously, in no wise conflicts with any of Schénbein’s facts. A 
quantity of free nitrous acid that admits of recognition by 
help of Price’s test would not necessarily have any effect on 
litmus or other test for free acids. There remains then no ne- 
cessity of assuming the generation of nitrite of ammonia, and 
the fact of the separate appearance of the elements of this 
salt demands another explanation. 
he writer is not able perhaps to offer a fully satisfactory 
explanation of the facts above adduced. He submits, how- 
ever, some speculations which appear to him entirely warran- 
ted by the present aspects of the case, in the hope that some 
One with the time at command for experimental study, will es- 
tablish or disprove them by suitable investigations. = 
He believes that in no case can free nitrogen unite directly 
Se ie a ee din some 
of his experiments where organic matters intervened, was due to a power pos- 
Sessed by these organic matters to mask or impair the delicacy of Price’g test, 5 
: rst noticed by Pettenkofer and since demonstrated by Schénbein in’ case 
