oGv, Mr. Davy’s Electrochemical Researches on 
is 
discussion concerning it, it may be conveniently termed am- 
monium. 
But on what do the metallic properties of ammonium 
depend ? 
Are hydrogene and nitrogene both metals in the aeriform 
state, at the usual temperatures of the atmosphere, bodies of 
the same character, as zinc and quicksilver would be in the 
heat of ignition ? 
Or are these gases, in their common form, oxides, which 
become metallized by deoxydation ? 
Or are they simple bodies not metallic in their own nature, 
but capable of composing a metal in their deoxygenated, and 
an alkali in their oxygenated state ? 
These problems, the second of which was stated by Mr. 
Cavendish to me, and the last of which belongs to Mr. Ber- 
zelius, offer most important objects of investigation. 
I have made some experiments in relation to them, but as 
yet unsuccessfully. I have heated the amalgam of potas- 
sium, in contact with both hydrogene and nitrogene, but 
without attaining their metallization ; but this fact cannot be 
considered as decisively for or against any one of these con- 
jectures. 
I mentioned in the Bakerian Lecture for 1807, that a modi- 
fication of a phlogistic chemical theory might be defended on 
the idea that the metals and inflammable solids, usually called 
simple, were compounds of the same matter as that existing in 
rear to a metal in its characters, so that the metallic nature of steel does not mili- 
tate against the reasoning in the text. The only facts which I am acquainted with, 
that do militate against it, are the metallic characters of some of the sulphurets and 
phosphurets of the imperfect metals. 
