JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. IV MAY 4, 1914 No. 9 



Geology. — Origin and mode of formation of magmatic gases. ^ 

 Stanislas Meunier, Professor of Geology at the National 

 ]\Iuseum of Natural History, Paris. Communicated by 

 Arthur L. Day. 



The presence of gases, intimately associated with the products 

 ejected by volcanoes, namely, lavas, ashes, and fumarole deposits, 

 represents one of the most important problems in general geology, 

 for it leads to a recognition of the preponderant part played by a 

 long series of gasiform substances, deep down in the earth's crust. 

 This consideration has evidently been overlooked by all those 

 authors who have cherished the hope of accomplishing the ex- 

 perimental synthesis of crystalline rocks by processes of simple 

 fusion. Their results, typically illustrated by the work of Fouque 

 and ]\Iichel Levy, bear only a partial resemblance to the natural 

 products, the origin of which they do not fully explain. 



On the other hand, volcanic action has been so steadily at 

 work from the remotest geologic periods, and it still bears so large 

 a share in the evolution of the earth's surface, that any view regard- 

 ing it which is not in perfect harmony with the understanding 

 of all the other telluric functions can not be considered trust- 

 worthy. It would in fact be easy to show that, in order to reach 

 the conclusion which to us seems the right one, nothing more is 

 needed than to enumerate the successive conditions through which 

 the deeper parts of the earth's crust have passed. 



1 Translation of French manuscript. 



213 



