Fostien Literdtuve and Scien: 181 
a spot of white foam appeared, the borders being in- 
dented. This curious phenomenon contin hundred 
and fifty seconds. Ten drops formed a globule with like re- 
sults, except that it lasted two hundred seconds, and went 
off orgy: t evaporation properly speaking, the spoon being 
very h 
Atter these trials he used a capsule of pure silver and an- 
other of platina, which were heated on coals to whiteness. 
omena were phair the same. With he silver 
capsule, in the first experi 
the first drop continued 72 seconds, 
he second 
third - - i # 
fourth - - is" 
In the second experim 
the first drop continued es seconds, 
the secon 
third - - a es 
fourth - - 4 : 
When there were ibete oe, the united ball continued 
two hundred and forty seconds, and the evaporation was af- 
terwards instantaneous. With the platina capsule, the first 
drop continued fifty sec onds, and a bubble of of three drops 
ninety seconds.—Jbid. 
26. Contents of rain water.—M. Lizsie, professor of 
chemistry at Geissen, found on an examination of seventy- 
seven specimens of rain water, seventeen of which were 
ured during storms, that the latter all contained nitric 
asi in very different quantities, combined either with lime 
or ammonia. Among the other ay ee he found 
but two which contained a tra 
The same chemist examined the cana of. fifty other va- 
_ rieties of rain water, collected by the late M. Zimmerman, 
“in 1821, 1822, and 1823; among them twelve contained ni- 
trates. 
It thus appears, that during storms the azote and oxygen 
of the atmosphere, combine and form nitric acid—a fact b 
no means surprising, after the experimental results of Caven- 
dish and 
Hence when nitrates are found in materials which contain 
neither animal nor vegetable matters, the acid is probably 
formed by the electricity of the atmosphere. 
