194 Mr, Brayletf on the Rationale of the Formation [Sept* 



formation of the varieties of carbon in question, which the con- 

 iideration of the facts has suggested to me ; and which, by recon-* 

 cihng them to each other, removes the supposed anomaly. 



It is simply this : That the carbon, existing in the carburetted 

 hydroj^en in the gaseous state, retains that state upon its separation 

 from the hydrogen, and thence, as we know that gaseous carbon 

 must require a temperature of unknown intensity for its preser- 

 vation in that form, passes into the liquid state. This, however, 

 in consequence of the high temperature required for its liquefac- 

 tion, a temperature far exceeding that of the steel-chest or the 

 gas-retort, it cannot retain, (a circumstance which is in perfect 

 agreement with the great infusibility of carbon as evinced by 

 experiment;) and it passes, instantaneously, into a state of 

 solidity ; its liquefaction, of course, taking place, " only in the 

 moment of mamillary or filamentous formation/' The result of 

 this operation would certainly be, the production of substances 

 with characters indicating their forms to have been " assumed 

 out of a state of fusion." And yet the fact of the great infusi- 

 bility of carbon, instead of being contradicted by tne apparent 

 phsenomena, would be in reality a chief cause of the appearances 

 exhibited by the substances. The instantaneous passage from 

 the liquid to the solid state, would prevent the agency of the 

 surrounding gaseous substances, of the iron, or of the earthert 

 vessel, from interfering with the cohesive affinity and tendency 

 to union of the particles or molecules of sohd carbon resulting 

 from the transition, and they would of course unite in the freest 

 manner, and according only to their own inherent properties, 

 independently of the action of the contiguous bodies. And the 

 characters of the forms of carbon so produced, appear indeed to 

 indicate that this was actually the case. One of them consists 

 of fine capillary filaments. Now all we know, I believe, of cor- 

 puscular forces, and of their agency in the production of soUds, 

 would lead us to believe, that the sudden production and fixation 

 of the solid particles of carbon, supposed in the explanation I 

 have ventured to give, would cause an aggregation of them m 

 one direction only, which would of course produce a collection 

 of filaments ; the suddenness of the operation preventing the 

 attraction of crystallization from having place. That attraction 

 would scarcely have time for incipient agency, before the carbon 

 would have ceased to be amenable to its influence. Nor does 

 the mamillary form of the other variety in any way oppose this 

 hypothesis : all the other mamillary concretions in nature with 

 which we are acquainted, (and on examination of the carbon it 

 will doubtless be found to be the case with that,) arise from the 

 aggregation of fibres radiating from a centre in every direction, 

 and tending thus to form spheres, the complete formation of 

 which, however, is interrupted and prevented, by the fibres 

 proceeding from different centres meeting and intercepting each 

 other in the operation, by which the spheres become irregularly 



