The attempts made by Davy to decompose the alkaline earths by methods similar to those adopted in the case of potash or soda were not very successful, and it was only when he had received intimation from Berzelius that they might be procured in the form of amalgams by operating in contact with mercury that he obtained any decisive results. In no case, however, was he able to prepare a pure metal, and his description of the physical properties of the substances he actually procured is exceedingly meagre. He seems to have been satisfied for the moment in demonstrating that-- “The evidence for the composition of the alkaline earths is of the same kind as that for the composition of the common metallic oxides; and the principles of their decomposition are precisely similar, the inflammable matters in all cases separating at the negative surface in the voltaic circuit, and the oxygen at the positive surface.” “These new substances will demand names; and on the same principles as I have named the bases of the fixed alkalies, potassium and sodium, I shall venture to denominate the metals from the alkaline earths barium, strontium, calcium and magnium; the last of these words is undoubtedly objectionable but magnesium has been already applied to metallic manganese [by Bergman] and would consequently have been an equivocal term.” However, as he states in his “Elements of Chemical Philosophy,” “the candid criticisms of some philosophical friends” induced him to subsequently change the name to magnesium. He next made “Inquiries Relative to the Decomposition of Alumine, Silex, Zircone, and Glucine,” but although he made a large number of trials, the results were equivocal. “Had I been so fortunate,” he says, “as to have obtained more certain evidences on this subject, and to have procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium.” One of the most interesting sections of the paper relates to the production of a so-called amalgam from ammonia, first obtained by Berzelius and Pontin. This curious substance has been the subject of much investigation, and little doubt is now entertained that it is merely a mercurial froth, as first stated by Daniell--that is, mercury distended by ammonia and hydrogen gases. Davy, however, saw in it the proof of the presence of oxygen in ammonia, and of the existence of what he called “the compound basis” of ammonia. He says:--