PROCESS OF GASSIFICATION. 195 



1-42 of a gaseous vapor 0-&-0 of carbonic 

 acid gas besides a small proportion of hydro- 

 gen gas. An analysis, such as this, is evidently 

 defective and imperfect ; MURRAY, therefore; 

 in his valuable chemical Work, very properly 

 rectifies this error, by defining the atmosphere 

 to be " that mass of invisible and elastic fluid, 

 which surrounds the earth, to a great height 

 diminishing in density, as it recedes from the 

 surface, and may be regarded as a collection of 

 those substances, which are capable of existing, 

 in the aeriform state, at the medium tempera- 

 ture of the globe; and which are constantly 

 disengaged, more or less abundantly, by the 

 processes going on, at the surface of the earth : 

 these, mixed with the substances which 

 they hold in solution with the water, con- 

 stantly evaporating from the surface with the 

 effluvia from animals and vegetables with 

 particles of common matter, in a state of ex- 

 treme mechanical division, and with the mag- 

 netic and elastic fluids, light and caloric, 

 form a vast mixture, the composition of which 

 it is impossible, apparently, to determine with 

 accuracy." 



It must be acknowledged to be a matter of 

 astonishment, that the infinite variety of bodies, 

 both animal, vegetable, and common, which 

 subserve to this process, should be, ultimately, 

 so completely decomposed and dissolved, that 



o2 



