Scentific Intelligence.— Chemustry. 373 
Since the discovery that the diamond consists of pure crystallized 
carbon, chemists have reflected on the possibility of determining ther 
crystallizations artificially. No means, however, have yet been dis- 
covered of rendering charcoal, or pure carbon, fluid. ‘The action of 
the Voltaic Battery on charcoal points seems to afford traces of incip- 
ient fusion, but the effect probably arises from the ashes of the com- 
bustion, which containing silex and potash, furnish a kind of glass which 
is sometimes very hard, but which has none of the properties of dia- 
mond. If the heating power of the battery be very great, the char- 
coal is scattered in impalpaple powder over the adjacent apparatus.* 
Some Savans have proposed to unite a high temperature with strong 
compression. On the 11th of November last, Cagniard de la Tour 
presented to the Academy of Sciences, tubes containing, as he sup- 
posed, crystallized carbon, but they were ascertained by the commit- 
tee appointed to. examine them, to be earthy silicates of a remarkable 
composition. M..Gannal on the 3d of November, informed , the 
Academy of another method which he had employed, viz. treating 
carburet of sulphur, with phosphorus and water. The phosphorus 
combines with the sulphur, and the carbon is supposed to. form. crys- 
tals on the surface. More. attempts of M. Gannal, though not pub- 
licly announced before, have been long known to some of his friends- 
One of his associates, a jeweller, who has been two years at Gene- 
ya, presented one of these crystals to the museum, . Its weight is 
about ,!; of acarat. But before any thing decisive can be pronoun- 
ced relative to this discovery, the experiment must be reiterated, 
and a scrupulous examination made of all the facts. We may add 
that the employment of weak electric forces, long continued, may, 
perhaps, effect this crystallization, M. Becqueul.. having. already 
succeeded upon bodies which appear as difficult to manage as.car- 
bon.—Bib. Univ. Jan. 1829. spies 
4. Of the influence of air on the crystallization of salts, by M. 
Graham. (Trans. Roy. Soc. of Edinburgh.) —The well known fact 
of the sudden crystallization of a saturated solution of sulphate of so- 
da, from which the air has been excluded by ebullition on the read- 
mission of air, appears still to defy every attempt at accurate explan- 
ation. Gay Lussac has shewn, that it is not the pressure of the at- 
| * This is incorrect ; the deflagrator of Dr. Hare ‘volatilizes and fuses the charcoal 
point, and the higher its power the more readily and effectually is it accomplished.— 
Ed. ; 
