NAB CENT STATE, in chemistry. When an element or compound is liberated from sonic chemical combination in which it had previously existed, the element or compound so liberated is at the moment when it escapes said to be in a nascent state; and it is then often capable of exerting far more powerful combining action with other bodies than it can exhibit when brougnt in contact with thou after it has been liberated. Arsenic and hydrogen will not directly combine if brought in contact with one,another under ordi nary eircumsnineet, Put the appolirattiOn Of;Marslea test (see Artstiatte)_depends upon the direct union of the nascent hydrogen (liberated by the decomposition of the water) with the arsenic, giving rise to arseuiureted hydrogen gas. Again, if hydrated protoxide of nickel (Ni0,110) be suspended iu a solution of caustic potash (KO,HO), it will undergo no change if a current of oxygen gas be passed through the solution ; but if a current of chlorine be substituted for the oxygen, the whole of the metallic protoxide will be con verted into the brown scsquioxide the resulting decomposition being shown in the equation: Protoxide of Solution of Hydrated Sesqui- Chloride of Nickel. Potash. oxide of Nickel. Potassium.
2(NiO,HO) KO,HO Cl = Ni203,3H0 KC1.
This change arises from the action of the chlorine upon the potash, during which chloride of potassium (KC1) is formed, while the nascent oxygen which is liberated from the potash combines with the oxide of nickel. Again, cyauogeu (C,N) and chlorine do not enter directly into combination, but if cyanogen at the instant that it is liberated from one of its compounds (as, for example, cyanide of mercury) comes in contact with chlorine, the two combine; and many other examples of similar action might he adduced.