45 
some new Objects in Chemical Philosophy. 
sopher to conceive, either that water was capable of being 
converted into nitrogene, or that it contained much more 
nitrogene than is usually suspected. 
I have made some repetitions of his processes. A quantity 
of water, ( about a cubical inch and a quarter, ) that had been 
produced from snow, boiled and inverted over mercury whilst 
hot, was converted into ice, and thawed in 16 successive ope- 
rations ; gas was produced, but after the first three or four 
times of freezing, there was no notable increase of the volume. 
At the end of the experiment, about T r - of a cubical inch was 
obtained, which proved to be common air. 
About four cubical inches of water from melted snow were 
converted into ice and thawed, four successive times in a 
conical vessel of wrought iron. At the end of the fourth 
process, the volume of gas equalled about - - of the volume 
of the water. It proved to contain about T r - oxygene, ^ hy- 
drogene, and nitrogene. 
Mr. Kir wan observed the fact that when nitrous gas, and 
sulphuretted hydrogene, are kept in contact for some time, 
there is a great diminution of volume, and that the nitrous 
gas becomes converted into nitrous oxide, and that sulphur is 
deposited which has an ammoniacal smell. I repeated this 
experiment several times in 1800 with similar results, and I 
found, that the diminution of the volume of the gasses when 
they were mixed in equal proportions, was to rather less than 
1, which seemed to be nitrous oxide. 
In reasoning upon this phenomenon, I saw grounds for a 
minute investigation of it. Sulphuretted hydrogene, as appears 
from experiments which I have stated on a former occasion, 
and from some that I shall detail towards the conclusion of 
