126 Papers relaung io the Kision of Carbon. 
say without renewing my trials upon them. It would be 
useless to examine for silex, &c. which might obviously be 
derived from the glass tube. Perhaps itis not necessary to 
— that the residuary gas, after the carbonic acid was 
ashed out, was oxygen gas. I objected to the conciusion 
of I Mr. Vanuxem, stated in his first memoir, that he found 
no carbon in the matter which he examined, on the ground 
that he did not collect the gaseous products, in which alone, 
in his method of operating. _ evidence of the existence of 
carbon would have been foun The experiments which I 
have just related will mlm be thought to cnnkps this: 
opinion. 
Half a grain of the fused charead was sien 3 in halfea an 
ounce. of strong nitric acid in a flask with a bent tube, and 
communicating with the pneumatic cistern; as soon as the 
air of the vessel was expelled, the gas which next came gave 
a decided precipitate with lime-water, but much less so than 
in the He porate the acid ees boiled nit the 
e to resume it in due time; at present I see no reason to 
doubt that the charcoal has been fused, and of course what- 
ever impurities it contains. But it would be singular indeed, 
if the impurities alone were transferred from one pole to the 
other; if they alone were subjected to the current of igavous 
and electrical influence, while the carbon made its escape. 
he discovery of siliceous, pf eries and other impuri- 
those obtained by my my in a similar manner and cone 
of a similar appearance had also a similar constitution. 1 did 
not examine them chemically, owing to causes which have 
been stated; and I distinctly admitted the pos ssibility of the re- 
sults obtained by Professor Vanuxem, as stated in his late 
memoir. 
