The silicates of potassa must be prepared as follows, for analytical purposes by the wet way.  Mix one part of the finely powdered substance with two parts of soda (free from potassa), and one part of borax.  Fuse the mixture upon charcoal in the oxidation flame to a clear, transparent bead.  This is to be exposed again with the pincers to the oxidation flame, to burn off the adhering coal particles.  Then pulverize and dissolve in hydrochloric acid to separate the silica; evaporate to dryness, dissolve the residue in water, with the admixture of a little alcohol, and test the filtrate with chloride of platinum for potassa.

(b.) Soda (NaO).—­This is one of the most abundant substances, although seldom found free, but combined with chlorine or some other less abundant compound.  Soda, its hydrate and salts manifest in general the same properties as their respective potash compounds; but the salts of soda mostly contain crystal water, which leaves the salts if they are exposed to the air, and the salts effervesce.

By exposing soda or its compounds upon a platinum wire to the blue flame, a reddish-yellow color is communicated to the external flame, which appears as a long brilliant stream and considerably increased in volume.  The presence of potash does not prevent this reaction of soda.  If there is too large a quantity of potash, the flame near to the substance is violet-colored, but the edge of the flame exhibits the characteristic tint of the soda.  The presence of lithia changes the yellow color to a shade of red.

When alcohol is poured over powdered soda compounds and lighted, the flame exhibits a reddish-yellow color, particularly if the alcohol is stirred up with a glass rod, or if the alcohol is nearly consumed.

Fused upon charcoal, soda compounds are absorbed by the coal.  The sulphide, chloride, iodide, and bromide of soda yield a white sublimate around the spot where the substance is laid, but this sublimate is not so copious as that of the potash compounds, and disappears when touched with the reduction flame, communicating a yellow color to the external flame.  The presence of soda in compounds must likewise be confined by reactions in the wet way.

(c.) Ammonia (NH^{4}O).—­In the fused state, and at the usual temperature, ammonia is a pungent gas, and exerts a reaction upon litmus paper similar to potash and soda.  Ammonium is considered by chemists as a metal, from the nature of its behavior with other substances.  It has not been isolated, but its existence is now generally conceded by all chemists.  The ammonia salts are volatile, and many of them sublimate without being decomposed.

The salts of ammonia, on being heated in the point of the blue flame, produce a feeble green color in the external flame, just previous to their being converted into vapor.  But this color is scarcely visible, and presents nothing characteristic.  When the ammonia salts are mixed with the carbonate of soda, and heated in a glass tube closed at one end, carbonate of ammonia is sublimed, which can be readily recognized by its penetrating smell of spirits of hartshorn.