78 HISTORY OF GEINE. 



tend to determine that, but by his citing, in order to 

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

 analysis of Sprengel, of humic acid, and of that of ul- 

 mic acid by Boullay, it is evident that he considered 

 his geine, identical with their humic and ulmic acids ; 

 but still he considered new researches to be necessa- 

 ry, to determine accurately the composition of either. 

 Later experiments have not only confirmed the ac- 

 curacy of Sprengel and Boullay, but the progress of 

 discovery has proved the perfect identity of ulmin,, 

 humin, geine and of ulmic, humic, geic acid, and 

 hence, Berzelius has withdrawn the name geine, 

 and returned to that of humic acid, the usual 

 term applied to the organic matter of soil. He 

 could not, consistently, have gone back a step fur- 

 ther, and substituted ulmin for geine, particularly 

 after he was violently attacked by Raspail, for aban- 

 doning that ancient, and much abused name. 



The great distinction pointed out by Berzelius, in 

 his three varieties of mould, were founded on their 

 solubility or insolubility, by water and by alkalies. 

 The author of these pages, while engaged in re- 

 searches upon the action of mordants, and of cow- 

 dung, in calico printing began in 1833, before he 

 had met with the work of Berzelius, had also notic- 

 ed this marked distinction, and several other new 



