£12 Electrochemical Researches oft 



of this actiou the water becomes a weak solution of am- 

 monia. 



When it is confined in a given portion of air, the air en- 

 larges considerably in volume, and the pure quicksilver re- 

 appears. Ammoniacal gas, equal to one and a half or one and 

 three-fifths of the' volume of the amalgam, is found to be 

 produced, and a quantity of oxygen equal to one-seventh or 

 one-eighth of the ammonia disappears*. 



When thrown into muriatic acid gas, it instantly becomes 

 coated with muriate of ammonia, and a small quantity of 

 hydrogen is disengaged. 



In sulphuric acid it becomes coated with sulphate of am- 

 monia and sulphur. 



I attempted by a variety of modes to preserve this amal- 

 gam. I had hoped by submitting it to distillation out of the 

 contact of air, or water, or bodies which could furnish oxy- 

 geiij to be able to obtain the deoxygenated substance which 

 had been united to the quicksilver in a pure form ; but all 

 the circumstances of the experiment opposed themselves to 

 such a result. 



It is well known to persons accustomed to barometrical 

 experiments, that mercury, after being once moistened, re- 

 tains water with great perseverance, and can only be freed 

 from it by boiling ; and in the cases of the decomposition of 

 ammonia, when a soft amalgam had been kept continually 

 moist, both internally and externally for some time, it could 

 not be expected that all the water adhering to it should be 

 easily removed. 



I wiped the amalgam as carefully as possible with bibu- 

 lous paper ; but even in this process a considerable portion 

 of the ammonia was regenerated ; I attempted to free it from 

 moisture by passing it through fine linen, but a complete 

 decomposition was effected, and nothing was obtained but 

 pure quicksilver. 



* This experiment confirms the opinions I have stated concerning the quan- 

 tity of oxygen in ammonia ; but a9 water is present, as will be immediately 

 s!*»\%"Q, the data for proportions are not perfectly correct. 



The 



