358 Mr. Davy’s 'Electrochemical Researches on 
ciable, and which merely breathing upon the amalgam would 
be almost sufficient to communicate. 
Hence, when an amalgam, which had been wiped by means 
of bibulous paper, was introduced into naphtha, it decomposed 
almost as rapidly as in the air, producing ammonia and hydro- 
gene. 
In oils it evolved hydrogene, and generated ammoniacai 
soap ; and when it was introduced into a glass tube, closed by 
a cork, gas was rapidly formed, and the mercury remained 
free ; and this gas, when examined, was found to consist of 
from about two-thirds to three-fourths ammonia, and the 
remainder hydrogene.* 
That more moisture sometimes existed attached to the 
amalgam, when wiped as dry as possible by bibulous paper, 
than was sufficient for the effect of decomposition, I soon 
found by an experiment of distillation. 
About a quarter of a cubic inch of an amalgam nearly solid 
was wiped very dry, and introduced into a small tube : in this 
tube it was heated till the gaseous matter had expelled the 
quicksilver; the tube was then closed, and suffered to cool, 
when moisture, which proved to be a saturated solution of 
ammonia, had precipitated upon it. 
I have mentioned that the amalgams obtained from am- 
monia, by means of the metals of the fixed alkalies or alkaline 
earths, seemed to contain much more ammoniacai basis in 
combination than those procured by electricity: and when 
they are combined with the metals of the fixed alkalies or 
* In the experiment of the action of the amalgam upon air, the oxygene is pro- 
bably absorbed by nascent hydrogene, and reproduces water, which is dissolved by the 
ammonia. 
