6 
Mr. Davy’s Experiments on the 
Sodium, when brought in contact with fused nitre, produced 
a violent deflagration. In two experiments in which I used a 
grain of the metal, the tube broke with the violence of the 
explosion. I succeeded in obtaining the solid results of the 
deflagration of •§- a grain of sodium, but it appeared that no 
peroxide had formed, for the mass gave no oxygene by the 
action of water. 
When potassium is burnt in a retort of pure glass, the re- 
sult is partly potash and partly peroxide, and by a long con- 
tinued red heat the peroxide is entirely decomposed. 
A grain of potassium was gently heated in a small green 
glass retort containing oxygene; it burnt slowly, and with a 
feeble flame ; a quantity of oxygene was absorbed equal to T 9 ^ 
of a cubical inch ; by heating the retort to dull redness, oxy- 
gene was expelled equal to of a cubical inch ; the mercury 
in the thermometer in this experiment stood at 63° Fahren- 
heit, and that in the barometer at 30. 1 inches. 
In experiments on the electrical decomposition of potash 
and soda, when the Voltaic battery employed contains from 
500 to 1000 series in full action; the metals burn at the 
moment of their production, and form the peroxides ; and it 
is probable, from the observations of M. Ritter, that these 
bodies may be produced likewise in Voltaic operations on 
potash, at the positive surface. 
In my early experiments on potassium and sodium, I re- 
garded the fusible substances appearing at the negative sur- 
face, in the Voltaic circuit, as well as those produced by the 
exposure of the metals to heat and air, as prot-oxides, and as 
similar to the results obtained by heating the metals in con- 
tact with small quantities of alkali. 
