AZOTE, n. [Gr. priv. and life, or vital.]
A species of gas, called also mephitic air, and atmospheric mephitis, on account of it fatal effects upon animal life. It is tasteless, and inodorous: it exists in common air, mixed with oxygen, and constitutes about seventy-nine hundredth parts of atmospheric air. It may be obtained, in large quantities, from the muscular fibers of animals. Combined with hydrogen, it forms volatile alkali; and it enters into the composition of most animal substances. It is the radical of nitric acid, and is now called nitrogen gas, or nitrogen.
