357 
the Decomposition of the Earths , &c. 
When thrown into muriatic acid gas, it instantly becomes 
coated with muriate of ammonia, and a small quantity of 
hydrogene is disengaged. 
In sulphuric acid it becomes coated . with sulphate of am- 
monia and sulphur. 
I attempted by a variety of modes to preserve this amalgam. 
Thad hoped by submitting it to distillation out of the contact 
of air, or water, or bodies which could furnish oxygene, to be 
able to obtain the deoxygenated substance which had been 
united to the quicksilver in a pure form ; but all the circum- 
stances of the experiment opposed themselves to such a result. 
It is well known to persons accustomed to barometrical ex- 
periments, that mercury after being once moistened, retains 
water with great perseverance, and can only be freed from it 
by boiling ; and in the cases of the decomposition of am- 
monia, when a soft amalgam had been kept continually moist, 
both internally and externally for some time, it could not be 
expected that all the water adhering to it should be easily 
removed. 
I wiped the amalgam as carefully as possible with bibulous 
paper ; but even, in this process a considerable portion of the 
ammonia was regenerated ; I attempted to free it from moisture 
by passing it through fine linen, but a complete decomposition 
was effected, and nothing was obtained but pure quicksilver. 
The whole quantity of the basis of ammonia combined 
in sixty grains of quicksilver, as is evident from the statements 
that have been made, does not exceed ~~ part of a grain, and 
to supply oxygene to this scarcely part of a grain of 
water would be required, which is a quantity hardly a-ppre»- 
