NITROGEN GAS

or AZOTE (Eng. and Fr.; Sticks toff gas , Germ.); constitutes about 79 hundredths of the bulk of the atmospheric air; it is copiously disengaged from several mineral springs, as from the natural basins of hot water which supply the baths of Leuk, near the Gemmi in Switzerland, and from other springs, in the Pyrenees, in Ceylon, South and North America, . It exists also in flesh and most animal substances, as well as in some vegetable products, being one of their e ential constituents. When phosphorus is burnt within a jar filled with air, standing over water in the pneumatic trough, it consumes or absorbs the oxygen, and leaves nitrogen, which may be rendered pure by agitation with water. By exposing nitrite of ammonia to heat in a retort, nitrogen comes over alone in great abundance; for the hydrogen of the ammonia is sufficient to saturate the oxygen of the acid, and to convert it into water; while the nitrogen of both constituents is set at liberty. By transmitting chlorine through water of ammonia, or digesting lean flesh in warm nitric acid, nitrogen may also be obtained. This permanently elastic gas is destitute of colour, taste, and smell; it has a specific gravity of 0·976, air being 1·000. Hence 100 cubic inches of it weigh 29·7 gr. It extinguishes all burning bodies, and when respired without oxygen is fatal to animal life.