Page:Experimental researches in chemistry and.djvu/158

1825] the two paler ones the most, and that to such a degree, that it would hardly have been supposed they had once formed part of the same pieces of glass as those which had been set aside. Thus it appears that the sun's rays can exert chemical powers even on such a compact body and permanent compound as glass.

importance of the question relative to the simple or compound nature of any of the substances considered as elementary in the present state of chemical science, is such as to make any experimental information respecting it acceptable, however imperfect it may be. An opinion of this kind has induced me to draw up the following account of experiments relative to the formation of ammonia, by the action of substances apparently including no nitrogen. The experiments are not offered as satisfactory, even to myself, of the production of ammonia without nitrogen; indeed, I am inclined to believe the results all depend upon the difficulty of excluding that element perfectly, and the extreme delicacy of the test of its presence afforded by the formation of ammonia: yet as, on the contrary, notwithstanding my utmost exertions, I have failed to convince myself that ammonia could not be formed, except nitrogen were present, it has been supposed that the information obtained, though incomplete, might be interesting.

Having occasion, some time since, to examine an organic substance with reference to any nitrogen it might contain, I was struck with the difference in the results obtained, when heated alone in a tube, or when heated with hydrate of potassa: in the former case no ammonia was produced; in the latter, abundance. Supposing that the potash acted, by inducing the combination of the nitrogen in the substance with hydrogen, more readily than when no potash was present, and would therefore be useful as a delicate test of the presence of nitrogen in bodies, I was induced to examine its accuracy by heating it with substances containing no nitrogen, as lignine, sugar, &c.; and was