the Decomposition of the Earths, &c. £09 



sodium, their bases might not actually have been in com- 

 bination with them, but the earths themselves, in nmion 

 with the metals of the alkalis, or in mere mechanical mix- 

 ture. And out of an immense number of experiments 

 which I made of the kind last detailed, a very few only 

 gave distinct indications of the production of. any earthy 

 matter ; and in cases when earthy matter did appear, the 

 quantity was such as rendered it impossible to decide on the 

 species. 



Had I been so fortunate as to have obtained more certain 

 evidences on this subject, and to have procured the metal- 

 lic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed 

 for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and 

 glucium. """•-., 



V. On the Production of an Amalgam from Ammonia^ and 

 on its Nature and Properties. 



In the communication from Professor Berzelius and Dr. 

 Pontin, which I have already referred to, a most curious and^ 

 important experiment on the deoxidation and amalgamation 

 of the compound basis of ammonia is mentioned, which these 

 ingenious gentlemen regard as a strict proof of the idea I had 

 formed of its being ati oxide with a binary basis. 



Mercury, negatively electrified in the Voltaic circuit, is 

 placed in contact with solution of ammonia. Under this 

 agency it gradually increases in volume, and, when expanded 

 to four or five times its former dimensions, becomes a soft, 

 solid. 



And that this substance is composed of the deoxygenated 

 compound basis of ammonia and mercury, they think is 

 proved : First, By ihe reproduction of quicksilver and ammo- 

 nia, with the absorption of oxygen, when it is exposed to 

 air ', and, Secondly, by its forming ammonia in water, whilst 

 hydrogen is evolved, and the quicksilver gradually becomes 

 free. 



An operation, in which hydrogen and nitrogen exhibit me- 

 tallic properties, or in which a metallic substance is appa- 

 rently composed from its elements, cannot fail to fix the at- 

 tention of chemists : and the peculiar interest which it of- 



Vol. 32. No. 127. Dec. 1808. O foci 



