CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 249 



well through all the stages of vegetation in a soil deprived of organic 

 matters, and containing a little sulphate and phosphate of lime, and 

 which was watered from time to time with ulmate of ammonia. Those 

 who do not believe in the absorption of humus will accept with diffi- 

 culty results obtained with a plant (Lampsana) which was found in 

 an abnormal state. They will add that there is nothing to prove that 

 oats accomplish their vegetation under the influence of ulmate of 

 ammonia, since in the soil it must find phosphate and sulphate of that 

 base. Indeed, if we put sulphate of lime, or powdered calcined bones 

 (or more properly artificial tribasic phosphate of lime,) in contact with 

 ulmate of ammonia, ulmate of lime is formed, and at the same time, 

 sulphate and phosphate of ammonia ; and again, when we put sulphate 

 and phosphate of ammonia in contact with ulmate of lime, a double 

 decomposition ensues. In all cases there is a division, and four salts 

 are formed. 



An experiment detailed by Malguti was as follows : I half filled two 

 large funnels with gravel, and the other half with powdered brick, 

 containing one per cent, of calcined bones, and as much chalk. I 

 sowed in these two artificial soils, moistened with distilled water, the 

 same quantity of cress seed. During germination I prepared by 

 means of turf, perfectly neutral ulmate of ammonia,, which I divided 

 into two equal lots, each about two quarts. One of these was set 

 aside, and the other was kept for watering the two soils. The seeds 

 having sprung up four days after they were sown, I began to water 

 them every day, one with ioO cubic centimetres of distilled water, and 



V V ' 



the other with the like quantity of ulmate of ammonia. After five 

 waterings, the difference between the two vegetations was very evi- 

 dent. That which had been watered with the ulmate was of a deep 

 green ; the other which had been treated with water was of a light 

 green. After eighteen waterings, that is to say after the experiment 

 had lasted twenty -two days, the most luxuriant plant threatening to 

 fall, I cut it down. The two crops dried in the air and under the same 

 circumstances weighed, that watered with water, 12,550 grs. ; that 

 watered with the ulmate of ammonia, 15,150 grs. The soil impreg- 

 nated with the ulmate was then washed until the water passed out 

 colorless and limpid ; dilute hydrochloric acid was then added and the 

 washing continued until the water became neutral. The treatment 

 with acid was succeeded by treatment with ammoniacal water, and 

 the two treatments were alternated, until it was quite certain that the 

 soil did not contain a trace of ulmic acid. All the waters colored by 

 ulmate of ammonia were combined with the rest of the lot employed 

 and the whole brought to a state of neutrality, and to the bulk of two 

 quarts. Two lots of liquid were thus produced ; the first containing 

 a quart, one-half of the ulmate of ammonia" originally produced, and 

 kept for comparison ; the second, a liquid containing all the ulmic acid 

 remaining in the soil ; over and above what might have been extracted 

 by the plant. The ulmic acid in both was then precipitated in the 

 form of ulmate of lime, and separately washed, dried and weighed 

 under like circumstances. It was found that the ulmate of ammonia 



