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VIII. On Ammonium Alloys, and on Nascent -Hydrogen Tests. 

 By Albert H. Gallattn, M.D., of New York*. 



BERZELIUS and De Pontio in 1808, using the voltaic car- 

 rent as Davy had done, endeavoured to do as much for the 

 ammoniacal compounds as he had done for those of the fixed 

 alkalies. They made what is known as the ammoniacal amal- 

 gam. That ammonium exists in this body has never been de- 

 monstrated, notwithstanding that its constituents in their proper 

 proportions were always found escaping from the amalgam : that 

 does not prove that they were united ; on the contrary, 2 vols, 

 of NH 3 and 1 vol. of H are the products. Moreover, if it were 

 ammonium, it had never been made to unite with any other 

 metal than mercury. I have endeavoured to overcome both of 

 these objections. 



1 . On the Existence of Ammonium in the Ammoniacal Amalgam, 

 and on a new Test for the presence of Nascent Hydrogen. 



If the hydrogen escaping from the mercury together with the 

 ammonia can be shown to be in the nascent state, it would be 

 evidence that it had just been in chemical combination with the 

 ammonia, in other words, that metallic ammonium (NH 4 ) ex- 

 isted in the amalgam. Some pellets of sodium were placed in 

 contact with some particles of the transparent variety of phos- 

 phorus, wrapped in bibulous paper and plunged beneath the sur- 

 face of water. A red glow was seen ; and as the nascent hydro- 

 gen from the decomposing water came into contact with ' the 

 phosphorus, bubbles of phosphide of hydrogen were formed. 

 Occasionally one would inflame as it came into contact with the 

 atmosphere, placing the nature of the reaction beyond doubt. 

 As phosphide of hydrogen cannot be formed by direct synthesis 

 if ordinary free hydrogen be employed, this becomes a test for 

 the presence of that gas in its nascent state. The hydrogen 

 escaping from the ammoniacal amalgam was now tested by this 

 process. A sodium-amalgam dipped beneath a solution of chlo- 

 ride of ammonium was employed; and it became necessary to 

 wait until the sodium was exhausted, that results might not be 

 vitiated by the nascent hydrogen escaping from the water. At 

 the proper time the decomposing amalgam was covered with 

 fragments of transparent phosphorus, when many bubbles of 

 inflammable phosphide were obtained. The hydrogen must 

 then have been in the nascent state and just escaping from the 

 ammonium. 



* Communicated by the Author. 



