76 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



breaks up the obdurate mass into particles. 

 Tims granite, one of the most dense and endur- 

 ing rocks entering into the construction of our 

 planet, of all others perhaps the least generally 

 affected by chemical re-agents, yields to the 

 gentle influence of a chemical power so appa- 

 rently feeble as that of carbonated water. We 

 shall immediately have to notice how great are 

 the effects produced in nature by this means; 

 but it may be stated, in the meanwhile, that 

 the manner in which carbonated water pro- 

 duces these wonderful and important effects, 

 appears to be as follows : Granite being largely 

 composed of felspar, contains a considerable 

 quantity of alkali in its composition, for which 

 the carbonated water has an affinity that is, it 

 has a tendency to unite with and to dissolve out 

 the alkali. The consequence is, that the alkali 

 being dissolved out of the mass, it crumbles in 

 pieces, and in course of time becomes, as we 

 shall see, quite a different substance. 



The Professors Rogers, of America, have 

 recently instituted an elaborate series of experi- 

 ments upon the actual dissolving and decom- 

 posing power of water, pure, and charged with 

 carbonic acid gas. They find that the influence 

 here attributed to these simple chemical agents 

 has not been over-rated; and that rocks of all 

 kinds, those without an alkali in their com- 



