272 Correspondence of T. Sterry Hunt. 
“In 1848 Touggsted _ be nitrogen is the nitryl of nitrous acid, NHO,, 
H,—H,0,=NN, c pondin to the nitric nitryl, NNO», and to the 
phosphoric” nitryl, PNO, Americas Journal of Science, [2), v, 408 ; vi, 172; 
viii, 375). It might then be supposed that, like these two bodies, nitrogen 
should under favorable conditions fix H,O,, and rege 
Cloes, without the Avatars tion of ammonia, and at the expense of air a 
r in presence of alkaline matters (Comptes iad xi, p. 135). 
"The simu ti the el 
tric spark, and during the slow oxydation of ede orus, bee be explained by 
he power oxydize amm fre of 
asmall portion of pig epee nitrite of aration, and Bir # in 
with the observations of Houzeau, peryiee. its ee action so far as to 
acidify the ueee. of the atom of ammonia. Certain of the reactions at- 
tributed to ozone would thus, as many Pobacniste eee aiready maintained, be 
due to a minute portion of nitrous acid, which is formed when active oxyge® 
: i ; i cf other hand, 
€: 
form a second atom by the Sip rete of the ac ac The € ‘ana “Pa ; ieee marc 
1861). These views will a 
mber 
I found that a current of air, which had passed through a solution A perman: 
ganate of potash acidulated ‘with sulphuric ef i vo odor @ 
action of ozone. This disappeared when the as passed through 2 solution 
e i 
electric or a catalytic action accompanying the production of ozone, : 
the action of nascent oxygen upon 5. Shs nitrogen in the presence of 
Water, supports the above views, and, as I have earner in the note in qu 
tion, aa ag the key to a new theory} of nitrification INN 
The formation of nitrite of ammonia, by the combination of the n eee ne 
with H,O,, must necessarily be limited i very minute quantities Oy acadilf 
stability of this ammoniacal salt, which, as is well known, decom ble 
into nitrogen and water. In order dherohare to produce any nef a 
quantity of a nitrite by this reiations — _ os the presence of a 
reactions. _Appreciable traces of nitrite are, according to Sehiinbein - 
