Elements of chemistry ... / [John Murray].

  • Murray, J. (John), -1820
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of chemistry ... / [John Murray]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    278/1076 (page 264)
    Nitrogen gas is permanently elastic, invisible, insipid, and inodorous. It is lighter than atmospheric air, its specific gravity being to that of the latter as 966 to 1000. This gas, possessing no very striking property, is prin- cipally characterized by certain negative qualities in its pure form, and by the nature of the compounds it forms. Thus it is incapable of supporting combustion. It is equal- ly incapable of supporting animal life by respiration. It is not inflammable ; for although it combines with oxygen, a process generally attended with the phenomena of com- bustion, nitrogen presents the anomaly of exhibiting none of the appearances of burning during this combination ; it neither sensibly evolves heat nor fight. Lastly, nitrogen gas is not perceptibly absorbed by water ; it suffers no ap- parent diminution of volume when exposed to it. If, how- ever, the water has been previously freed from all air by boiling, and the nitrogen gas be exposed to it for some hours, a very small quantity, 1.47 cubic inch, is absorbed by 100 cubic inches of the water. Nitrogen exhibits more distinctive characters in the combinations into which it enters. It unites with oxygen in different proportions, and forms compounds possessed of very peculiar chemical properties. It unites too with hydrogen. And it is a chief ingredient in the products of the animal system, and appears to give their most distin- guishing chemical characters. Opinions have often varied with regard to the nature of nitrogen, and certain facts were observed which rendered the investigation of this difficult. Priestley stated many