of Nitrification ; "xith an Extension of it. 175 



Might it arise from some combination of azote, which these 

 emanations bore along with them? But it is known that in 

 the putrefaction of blood, urine, and similar matter, all the 

 azote goes to form ammonia : admitting, however, that a part 

 of the azote escapes the hydrogen, and enters into some com- 

 bination hitherto unobserved ; Why, it may be asked, does it 

 exhibit no nitrifying power without the cooperation of car- 

 bonate of lime ? For if directed against caustic lime, magnesia, 

 alumina, &;c., no nitric acid is formed, or at least a scarcely 

 sensible quantity, and only after a long lapse of time ; while 

 if potash, caustic or carbonated be presented, not an atom 

 of nitre is formed*. 



Mio-ht it be through a reaction of the putrid emanations 

 upon the atmosphere ? But, besides that this reaction is dif- 

 ficult to conceive, and that otherwise it would be the azote 

 of the air which formed the nitric acid, and not that of the 

 animal matters, it may still be asked. Why is the carbonate 

 of lime the only body which sohcits this reaction ? 



Considering it as proved, that animal substances do not 

 nitrify by means of their emanations, M. Longchamp be- 

 lieves that insuperable difficulties attend the supposition, that 

 putrescent bodies, in contact with carbonate of lime, contri- 

 bute in any measure to the production of nitric acid. For 

 there is no chemical fact which entitles us to suppose, that 

 urine or blood would yield by their putrefaction, other pro- 

 ducts when they are mixed with calcareous earths, than when 

 they putrefy without the admixture. Provided, too, that the 

 animal matters remained in the solid state, their action upon 

 the solid calcareous matter would be very much circumscribed, 

 extending only to the particles in immediate contact with 

 their surfaces. Even supposing that the animal matter was 

 liquid, and would thereby become diffused more generally 

 through the mass, still its action would be limited to a great 

 degree, by the total insolubility of the carbonate of lime. 

 From a review of these circumstances, Mons. L. considers him- 

 self entided to conclude, that animal matters, whether solid 

 or liquid, do not concur by their azote to the formation of the 

 nitric acid. He then proceeds to the development of his 

 own theory, or to show how atmospheric air, without the con- 

 currence of any vegetable or animal matter, may form nitric 

 acid. 



a quantity of the carbonate of lime, which they carefully washed in boiling 

 water to extract all the salts; they placed the washed carbonate of lime in 

 baskets, which were hung at the distance of two feet from a quantity of 

 blood in a state of putrefaction. Mini. Etrang. dc l^Acad. xi. I*. I. p. 126. 

 * Thouvenel, Uid. W II. pag. Hi). 



It 



