on the fixed Alkalies. 
35 
VIII. On the Nature of Ammonia and alkaline Bodies in general; 
with Observations on some prospects of Discovery offered by the 
preceding Facts. 
Ammonia is a substance, the chemical composition of which 
has always been considered of late years as most perfectly 
ascertained, and the apparent conversion of it into hydrogene 
and nitrogene, in the experiments of Scheele, Priestley, 
and the more refined and accurate experiments of Berthollet, 
had left no doubt of its nature in the minds of the most en- 
lightened chemists. 
All new facts must be accompanied however by a train of 
analogies, and often by suspicions with regard to the accuracy 
of former conclusions. As the two fixed alkalies contain a 
small quantity of oxygene united to peculiar bases, may not 
the volatile alkali likewise contain it ? was a query which 
soon occurred to me in the course of enquiry ; and in perusing 
the accounts of the various experiments made on the subject, 
some of which I had carefully repeated, I saw no reason to 
consider the circumstance as impossible. For supposing 
hydrogene and nitrogene to exist in combination with oxy- 
gene in low proportion, this last principle might easily dis- 
appear in the analytical experiments of decomposition by heat 
and electricity, in water deposited upon the vessels employed 
or dissolved in the gasses produced. 
Of the existence of oxygene in volatile alkali I soon satisfied 
myself. When charcoal carefully burnt and freed from mois- 
ture was ignited by the Voltaic battery of the power of 250 
of 6 and 4 inches square, in a small quantity of very pure 
F 2 
