“…Neither method is specific for oxygen; the vacuum amalgamation and vacuum distillation methods culminate in the isolation, respectively, of a mercury insoluble or of a nonvolatile alkaline residue followed by alkalimetry of the residue. A recently introduced method, neutron activation, has been used for the determination of oxygen in potassium {Ilf) and cesium (1,15). This method, although specific for oxygen, cannot distinguish among the several oxygen species that may be present, such as alkali metal carbonate, monoxide, or superoxide.…”