some new Objects in Chemical Philosophy. 51 
sition of the naphtha ; and in several experiments in which I 
have burnt the entire fusible substance, I have found no loss 
of nitrogene. 
Even the considerable excess of hydrogene, and deficiency 
of nitrogene, in the processes in which the fusible substance is 
distilled with a new quantity of potassium, page 451, it is pos- 
sible to refer to the larger quantity of moisture, which must 
be absorbed by the fusible substance from the air, during the 
time occupied in attaching the potassium to the tray, and like- 
wise from the moisture adhering to the crust of potash, which 
always forms upon the potassium, during its exposure to air. 
These objections are the strongest that occur to me, against 
the mode of explaining the phaenomena by supposing nitro- 
gene decomposed in the operation ; but they cannot be con- 
sidered as decisive on this complicated and obscure question, 
and the opposite view may be easily defended. 
Though I have already laid before the Society, a number 
of experiments upon the decomposition of ammonia, yet 1 
shall not hesitate to detail some further operations which 
have been conducted according to new views of the subject. 
1 concluded from the loss of weight taking place in 
the electrical analysis of apimonia, that water or oxygene w r as 
probably separated in this operation ; but I was aware that 
objections might be made to this mode of accounting for the 
phenomenon. 
The experiment of producing an amalgam from ammonia, 
which regenerated volatile alkali, apparently by oxidation, 
confirmed the notion of the existence of oxygene in this sub- 
stance, at the same time it led to the suspicion, that of the two 
gasses separated by electricity, one, or perhaps both, might 
H 3 
