some new Objects in Chemical Philosophy * 25 
Whoever will consider with attention, the mere visible 
phaenomena of the action of sodium on ammonia, cannot, I 
conceive, fail to be convinced that it is the volatile alkali, and 
not the metal which is decompounded in this process. 
As sodium does not act so violently upon oxygene, as po- 
tassium ; and as soda does not absorb water from the atmos- 
phere, with nearly so much rapidity as potash, sodium can 
be introduced into ammonia, much freer from moisture, than 
potassium. Hence, when it is heated in ammonia, there is no 
effervescence, or at least one scarcely perceptible. Its tint 
changes to bright azure, and from bright azure to olive green, 
it becomes quietly and silently converted into the fusible sub- 
stance, which forms upon the surface, and then flows off into 
the tray. It emits no elastic fluid, and gains its new form 
evidently, by combining with one part of the elementary 
matter of ammonia, whilst another part is suffered to escape 
in the form of hydrogene. 
It will not be necessary for me to enter into a very minute 
experimental examination of the opinion of M. Curaudau, 
that the metals of the alkalies, are composed of the alkalies 
merely united to charcoal ; the investigation upon which he 
has founded his conclusions, is neither so refined, nor so diffi- 
cult, as that which has been just examined. This gentleman 
has been misled by the existence of charcoal, as an accidental 
constituent in the metals he employed, in a manner much 
more obvious, than that in which MM. Gay Lussac and 
Thenard have been misled by the moisture which interfered 
with their results. 
M. Curaudau states, that when sodium is oxydated, 
carbonic acid is formed. This I have never found to be the 
mdcccx. E 
