I can at once show you the formation of this salt by the immediate combination of muriatic acid with ammonia.—These two glass jars contain, the one muriatic acid gas, the other ammoniacal gas, both of which are perfectly invisible—now, if I mix them together, you see they immediately form an opake white cloud, like smoke.—If a thermometer was placed in the jar in which these gases are mixed, you would perceive that some heat is at the same time produced.
EMILY.
The effects of chemical combinations are, indeed, wonderful!—How extraordinary it is that two invisible bodies should become visible by their union!
MRS. B.
This strikes you with astonishment, because it is a phenomenon which nature seldom exhibits to our view; but the most common of her operations are as wonderful, and it is their frequency only that prevents our regarding them with equal admiration. What would be more surprising, for instance, than combustion, were it not rendered so familiar by custom?
EMILY.
That is true.—But pray, Mrs. B., is this white cloud the salt that produces ammonia? How different it is from the solid muriat of ammonia which you once showed us!
MRS. B.
It is the same substance which first appears in the state of vapour, but will soon be condensed by cooling against the sides of the jar, in the form of very minute crystals.
We may now proceed to the oxy-muriats. In this class of salts the oxy-muriat of potash is the most worthy of our attention, for its striking properties. The acid, in this state of combination, contains a still greater proportion of oxygen than when alone.