HISTORY OP GEINE. 89 



The mass of matter called mould or humus, has many 

 analogies with the artificial ulmin of authors, but taken as a 

 whole, there are decided differences. These were noticed by 

 Berzelius, and hence he divided, in an edition of his chemist- 

 ry (French translation of 1832), the constituents of the 

 organic part of mould or humus, into, 



1st. Extract of mould. 2d. Geine. 3d. Carbonaceous 

 mould, or coal of humus, as it is often termed. He noticed 

 that these mutually passed into each other. This shows a 

 great similarity if not identity of chemical constituents. 

 He did not pretend to determine that, but by his citing, in 

 order to determine the elements of his No. 2, or geine, the 

 analysis by Sprengel of huraic acid, and of that of ulmic 

 acid by Boullay, it is evident that he considered his geine 

 identical with their humic and ulmic acids ; but still he con- 

 sidered new researches to be necessary to determine accu- 

 rately the composition of either. Later experiments have 

 proved the perfect identity of geine, and of humic acid, and 

 hence, Berzelius has withdrawn the name geine, and returned 

 to that of humic acid, the usual term applied to the organic 

 acid of soil. He could not, consistently, have gone back a 

 step further, and substituted ulmin for geine, particularly 

 after he was violently attacked by Raspail, for abandoning 

 that ancient and much abused name. 



The great distinction pointed out by Berzelius, in his three 

 varieties of mould, was founded on their solubility or insol- 

 ubility, by water and by alkalies. The author of these 

 pages, while engaged in researches upon the action of mor- 

 dants, and of cow-dung, in calico printing, began in 1833, 

 before he had met with the work of Berzelius, had also 

 noticed this marked distinction, and several other new and 

 important facts, relating to what he then called, from its 

 analogies, ulmin. For all practical purposes, the distinction 



