27 i New Method of preparing Nitrons Ether. 



ther, but to carry with him fire and the axe. The germs of 

 nemoral plants sleep in the dried earth, which is not proper 

 for their development. Their place is supplied by other 

 vegetables. The climate itself has changed, and attracts 

 pew species. The temperature rises ; rain is less frequent, 

 and more abundant ; the winds more inconstant and im- 

 petuous ; the torrents increase ; the declivities become fur- 

 rowed with ravines ; the rocks are stripped of the earth 

 which covered them, and of the plants with which they 

 were ornamented. Every thing grows old with increasing 

 rapidity : an age of man presses on the earth more than 

 twenty ages of nature. 



And, however, it is still there that places and their pro- 

 ductions have preserved more of their original character. It 

 is there that the primitive distribution of vegetables has been 

 less interrupted ; that circumscription has been less strongly 

 traced out; that the influence of soil and climate is most 

 perceptible. It is there that ther comparison of objects 

 shows in turn symmetry and contrasts, and that the eye 

 can embrace at once every thing which attracts observation 

 and determines the judgment. And if it be in the structure 

 of the grand chains that the geologist ought to study the 

 structure of the earth and the history of the grand cata- 

 strophes which imprinted on it its last form, it is in these 

 mountains also that the botanist will attempt to penetrate 

 the mystery of the original dissemination of vegetables and 

 of their successive propagation. 



XLVT. New Method of preparing in a speedy Manner 

 Nitrous Ether, without the Application of external Heat* 

 By Brugnatellj *. 



JL ut into a tubulated retort an ounce of sugar, and pour 

 over it two ounces of pure alcohol : adapt to the retort a 

 capacious receiver; wrap round it cloths moistened in wa- 

 ter, and cover the joints with pieces of paper rolled round 

 them. Then pour through the tubulure of the retort three 

 ounces of concentrated fuming nitrous acid. An effer- 

 vescence immediately takes place ; the mixture becomes 

 hot; the sugar dissolves ; the solution seethes ; and the al- 

 cohol converted into ether passes over into the receiver. By 

 these means the whole of the alcohol, changed into excel- 



'" From Xnnali di Ch'wMid; BrngnateUi, 1S02, torn. x\x. p. 99. 



lent 



