ADDRESSES 31 



In fact it may be said that every great advance of mankind has 

 been due to scientiiic researches and their practical application, 

 and I believe that the State can do nothing better to advance 

 the welfare of its people than to encourage such organizations 

 as this Academy of Science, which aims to inspire and assist 

 all men who are working in scientific fields. 



May the time soon come when our Academy is found in 

 an appropriate building; is equipped with a library rich in the 

 literatures of science, as applied to Illinois conditions, and 

 with a museum which will fittingly represent man and nature 

 in this State. 



ABSTRACT— "VOLCANIC EMANATIONS" 

 Arthur L. Day, Carnegie Institute, Washington. 



This address was chiefly concerned with the identification of 

 and the reactions between the gaseous ingredients set free by 

 the liquid lava at Kilauea during the summer of 1912. A suc- 

 cessful attempt was made to collect the gases directly from 

 the liquid lava at a temperature of about 1000° be- 

 fore they reached the atmosphere. The collection of volcanic 

 gases before they have become altered by combustion with air 

 has proved to be an insurmountable difficulty hitherto, whether 

 the gases were collected in tubes for analysis in the laboratory 

 or studied at the point of emergency with the spectroscope. In 

 either case, the gases were burned or were in process of com- 

 bustion, and therefore could not reveal either their true identity 

 or the original relationships below the surface. This was the 

 first time that unaltered volcanic gases had ever been obtained 

 for study. 



In so far as the present reconnaissance yields final results, 

 it shows that the gases evolved from the hot lava at the Hale- 

 maumau crater are N 2 , H 2 0, C0 2 , CO, S0 2 , free H, and 

 free S; with CI, F, and perhaps NH 2 in comparatively in- 

 significant quantity. No argon was found, nor any of the 

 other rare gases. 



The chief conclusion, upon finding this group of gases in 

 association at 1000° or higher, is that they cannot be in 

 equilibrium at that temperature and must be in process of 

 active reaction among themselves; there can be no equilibrium, 

 for example, between free sulphur and C0 2 , nor between hy- 

 drogen and S0 2 or C0 2 . 



