280 EREMACAUSIS OR DECAY 



tuents of ammonia, possess the power of uniting 

 with one another. Now this is not the case in the 

 combustion of compounds of carbon and nitrogen ; 

 here one of the products is carbonic acid, which, 

 on account of its gaseous form, must oppose the 

 combination of the oxygen and nitrogen, by pre- 

 venting their mutual contact, while the superior 

 affinity of its carbon for the oxygen during the act 

 of its formation will aid in this effect. 



When sufficient access of air is admitted during 

 the combustion of ammonia, water is formed as 

 well as nitric acid, and both of these bodies com- 

 bine together. The presence of water may, indeed, 

 be considered as one of the conditions of nitrifica- 

 tion, since nitric acid cannot exist without it. 



Eremacausis is a kind of putrefaction, differing 

 from the common process of putrefaction, only in 

 the part which the oxygen of the air plays in the 

 transformations of the body in decay. When this 

 is remembered, and when it is considered, that in 

 the transposition of the elements of azotised bodies 

 their nitrogen assumes the form of ammonia, and 

 that in this form, nitrogen possesses a much 

 greater disposition to unite with oxygen than it 

 has in any of its other compounds ; we can with 

 difficulty resist the conclusion, that ammonia is the 

 general cause of nitrification on the surface of the 

 earth. 



Azotised animal matter is not, therefore, the 

 immediate cause of nitrification, it contributes to 



