204 THE ANALYST. * THE NON-EXISTENCE OF NASCENT HYDROGEN. BY DR. DONATTO TOMMOSI. THE author has proved by very ingenious experiments that the so-called nascent hydrogen does not differ in any respect from ordinary hydrogen. Of the vmious experiments we will mention the most important. 1. A solution of chlorate of potash was treated for some time with sodium amalgam. The liquid was then neutralized with nitric acid and tested for chlorine with nitrate of silver, but no chloride of silver was produced, showing the nascent hydrogen does not reduce the chlorate.2. The experiment was repeated, but this time with constant addition of some acetic acid to keep the liquid slightly acid. After six hours the liquid was tested with nitrate of silver, and found to be free from chlorine, 8.A saturated solution of potassium chlorate was acidulated with sulphuric acid and divided into two parts. The one was treated with zinc and the other with aodium amalgam. The fluids were both filtered before the free acid was neutralized. They were ,then both tested for chlorine. The one treated with the sodium did not precipitate with the silver, but the other gave a copious precipitate.It may now, perhaps, be thought the reduction of the cldorate was due to the nascent hydrogen evolved by the action of the zinc on the sulphuric acid, but the following experiment proves the reduction may be due, partly at least, to the zinc alone. Journal Les Nondes, T. XLVIII., No. 7.THE ANALYST. 205 A very weak solution was so slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid as scarcely to act upon zinc.This solution was put into a U tube and decomposed by a galvanic battery, composed of eight Bunsen elements. The negative electrode consisted of platinum foil; the positive one of zinc foil. After two hours a little of the liquid (zinc side) was tested for chlorine, and it gave copious precipitate with silver, the other (platinum side) did not contain a trace. So from the experiment it appears that even electrolytic hydrogen does not reduce the chlorate, but the reduction was caused by the zinc.In order to prove this still more conclusively the experiment was repeated with a platinum electrode instead of the zinc one, and no trace of chloride was produced even after 20 hours. The author found it impossible to reduce perchlorate of potash with so-called nascent hydrogen prepared by any of the known methods. Whenever so-called nascent hydrogen reduces, it is because it happens to be accompanied by a sufficient amount of heat evolved during the chemical action of the substances which yield the hydrogen, but not because it possesses other properties than ordinary hydrogen. The author also considers it highly improbable the nascent hydrogen should consist of isolated atoms of H.