C 450 3 
XXVII. New analytical Researches on the Nature of certain 
Bodies, being an Appendix to the Bakerian Lecture for 1808. 
By Humphry Davy, Esq. Sec. R. S. Prof. Cheryi. R. I* 
1 . Further Inquiries on the Action of Potassium on Ammonia and 
on the Analysis of Ammonia. 
The most remarkable circumstances occurring in the action 
of potassium upon ammonia are the disappearance of a certain 
quantity of nitrogene, and the conversion of a part of the po- 
tassium into potash. 
The first query which I advanced in the last Bakerian Lec- 
ture, on this obscure and difficult subject, was whether the gas 
developed in the first part of the process of the absorption 
of ammonia by potassium is hydrogene, or a new species of 
inflammable aeriform substance, the basis of nitrogene ? 
Experiments made to determine this point have proved, as 
I expected, that the gas differs in no respect from that given 
out during the solution of zinc in sulphuric acid ; or that pro- 
duced during the action of potassium on water. By slow 
combustion with oxygene, it generates pure water only, and 
* The account of the principal facts respecting the action of potassium on am- 
monia, in this communication, were read before the Royal Society, February 2, 1809. 
The paper was ordered to be printed March 16, 1809. At that time, having stated to 
the Council that I had since made some new experiments on this maher, and on the 
subjects discussed in the Bakerian Lecture for 1808, 1 received permission to add them 
to the detail of the former observations for publication. 
