On  the  Poiver  of  Soils  to  absorb  Manure. 
345 
2nd  Distillation — 
225-12 
3rd  Distillation — 
238-78 
gave  6-05  = 
gave  8-31  rs 
•4612 
or 
•2049 
•6335 
or 
•2653 
2481  per 
Cent. 
2049  , 
> 
■2653  , 
> 
1st  Experiment 
2nd  , , 
3rd 
These  results  do  not.  accord  by  any  means  so  satisfactorily  as  might  be 
wished  ; but  taking  the  1st  and  3rd,  which  only  differ  from  each  other  by 
•jJoisths,  we  obtain  a mean  of  -2567  for  the  strength  of  the  resulting  liquid. 
100  grains  of  the  original  Solution  contained  -30G0  grains  of  Ammonia. 
100  grains  of  the  resulting  Solution  contained  -2567  , , , , 
Loss  by  each  100  grains  of  Solution  . . -0493 
The  whole  quantity  of  liquid  (3988  grains)  will  therefore  have  lost 
2-0G6  grains  of  ammonia,  which  have  been  absorbed  by  594  grains  of  soil. 
The  absorption  by  100  grains  of  soil  is  consequently  -3478  grain. 
This  result  is  very  interesting.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
with  the  same  relative  quantities  of  soil  and  solution,  when  the 
free  ammonia  was  employed,  the  absorption  was  -3438  per  cent. 
With  the  muriate  it  is  *3478  per  cent.:  a correspondence 
which  is  quite  as  close  as  could  reasonably  be  expected  when 
proper  allowance  is  made  for  errors  of  experiment.  It  thus 
appears  that  the  power  of  the  soil  to  absorb  ammonia  is  in  this 
instance  the  same,  whether  the  alkali  be  in  the  free  state  or  in 
combination  with  an  acid. 
In  the  preliminary  experiments  w-e  found  reason  to  believe 
that  the  decomposition  of  an  ammoniacal  salt  and  the  retention  of 
the  ammonia  were  attended  with  the  production  of  an  equivalent 
quantity  of  a salt  of  lime,  which  remained  in  the  liquid.  If  such 
were  the  case,  the  muriatic  acid  of  the  sal-ammoniac,  not  being  in 
any  way  affected  by  the  action  of  the  soil,  but  simply  transferred 
from  that  salt  to  lime,  would  be  found  in  the  resulting  in  the 
same  quantity  as  in  the  original  liquid.  The  following  experi- 
ment proves  that  this  view  is  perfectly  correct  : — 
Experiment  68. — Estimation  of  muriatic  acid  (chlorine)  in  the  original 
and  resulting  solutions  : — 
Original  Solution — 
Grains.  Chloride  of  Silver.  Chlorine.  Per  Cent. 
346*67  gave  9*00  =s  2*2448  or  *6417 
Resulting  Liquid — 
317-48  gave  8-17  = 2-019  or  -6361 
100  grains  of  the  original  Solution  contained  *6417  grains  of  Chlorine. 
100  grains  of  the  resulting  Solution  contained  " 6361  ,,  ,, 
A result  which  may  be  considered  as  identical  in  the  two  cases. 
Thus,  it  is  evident  that  when  a soil  acts  upon  a salt  of  am- 
monia it  abstracts  only  the  alkali,  the  acid  being  transferred  to 
