Professor Hausniann on Metallurgical Phenomena. 327 



greatly extended, especially in Germany, has lost much of its 

 power ; while, on the contrary, the dominion of Pluto which, in 

 consequence of the mighty extension of the oceanic domains, 

 for some time appeared to totter, has not only recovered its pris- 

 tine vigour, but has had its boundaries materially enlarged. 

 The more extensive the influence is, which is in our days as- 

 cribed to fire in the formation and transformation of our planet, 

 the greater must appear the necessity of tracing accurately its 

 footsteps, and of investigating by what means, or in what man- 

 ner its own individual changes influence extraneous matters. 

 For effecting this purpose, an excellent means is furnished by 

 metallurgy, inasmuch as, of all that fire can accomplish under 

 the guidance of art, the greatest and most diversified phenome- 

 na are displayed by the processes that take place in the melting 

 furnace. 



Among the grand modern discoveries of chemistry, none can 

 be considered of greater importance to geology, than the dis- 

 covery of the metallic bases of the earths and alkalies ; and even 

 the great naturalist Sir Humphrey Davy, whose name is in an 

 especial manner associated with this discovery, did not omit to 

 make a happy application of it to the theory of volcanic pheno- 

 mena. He remarked, that if we should suppose the metals of 

 the earths and alkalies (of which kalium is confessedly endowed 

 with the property of igniting immediately with water) in com- 

 bination with the common metals, or metals properly so called, in 

 large masses under the crust of the earth, and should assume that 

 air and water come in contact with them, the operations of the sub- 

 terraneous fire, and the formation of masses of a lava-like sub- 

 stance, would then be explicable. This assumption, to which other 

 distinguished naturalists also have given their assent, may be 

 transferred to the formation of that entire portion of the crust of 

 the earth, which is composed of masses, to which we at present, 

 with perfect justice, ascribe a fiery origin. In conformity with 

 this view, the origin of the Plutonic and volcanic masses of the 

 crust of the earth appears to be the result of a process of oxida- 

 ti(jn, extending around the whole nucleus of the earth, and pro- 

 gressing in general from the surface towards the interior. 



It is assuredly not to be misunderstood that a more accurate 

 eiucidatiun of this theory is of the greatest importance to gco- 



