RESEARCHES ON THE AMMONIAC AE COMPOUNDS, 97 
ART. XVI, — NOTICE OF PROFESSOR KANE'S RESEARCHES 
ON THE AMMONIACAL COMPOUNDS. {Tram. Royal Irish 
Academy.) 
The action of ammonia on various salts, and the mutual de- 
composition which frequently results from this reaction, has 
become of much importance in the explanation of chemical 
phenomena. In a former number of this journal will be found 
the observations of Dumas, who was the first to conceive that 
ammonia itself underwent a decomposition under certain cir- 
cumstances, and that the result was the production of amido- 
gen, ahypotheticalcompound, containing one equivalent less of 
hydrogen than the body from which it was derived. Farther 
research has led to a more extensive application of these views, 
so as greatly to increase the probability of the correctness of 
the theory, and to render it necessary that several compounds 
formed by the action of ammonia, should be considered in a new 
light, and with different ideas as to their composition. To il- 
lustrate this subject to a greater extent, we have taken ad- 
vantage of Professor Kane's labors, as the most extensive, 
and, in reviewing his researches, we shall avail ourselves 
of any observation of others tending to illustrate the same 
point. 
"From the alkaline nature of ammonia, the a priori conclu- 
sion would be, that its action would be analogous to that of 
bodies of similar character; but, in point of fact, while in some 
instances this analogy is fully borne out, there are others in 
which it exhibits the utmost difference ; and of this its action 
on corrosive sublimate forms a very striking example, which 
has long attracted the attention of chemists. When ammonia 
is added to a solution of corrosive sublimate, a white powder, 
known as a white precipitate, is formed, and the solution con- 
sists entirely of muriate of ammonia. To explain this reac- 
tion, we may suppose either that ammonia enters undeconv 
posed into the new salt and forms a double muriate of ammo 
VOL. VI, NO. II. 13 
