THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



633 



detritus and decomposition of the mass of lime 

 and decay ot vegetable matter, has spread a rich 

 coveriof^ ot soil highly calcareous, rich and well 

 adapted lo the cultivation ol' cotioii, corn, wheat, 

 and many other ariicles of consumption and 

 commerce. 



What lias heen attempted to he proved respect- 

 ing these small iracts ol prairie land, may be sale- 

 ly asserted with regard to all ^in)ilar phenomena ; 

 where absolute sterility prevails, as in the deserts 

 of Asia and Africa, the question is at once settled ; 

 but this is not the case in regard to our prairies ; 

 they are oiten more Itjriile than the land upon 

 which timber is growing, so that wo must seek lor 

 an adequate cause in some other agent or agents. 

 Water and fire are by far the most powerful agents 

 that act on the earth. They are i'ully competent 

 to produce the effect now under consideration. 

 The former of the agents has at one time asserted 

 almost universal dominion over the American 

 continent, leaving only a lew peaks of the higher 

 mountains ; these waters have been removed by 

 some powerful cause to other and distant locations, 

 leaving their bed lo become the nurturing spot lor 

 vegetation. By the action of fire, no plants but 

 annuals have been permitted to assert their domi- 

 nion over these immense plains. There can be no 

 doubt that the same cause that has produced the 

 American prairies, has caused those extended 

 plains in the south of Europe and the north ol 

 Asia. 



I h^ve not seen any theory respecting the for- 

 mation of prairies ; there may be those far more 

 plausible than the one so briefly sketched above; 

 if so, the writer is ignorant respecting them and 

 their authors. In conclusion, it is but jusi to our 

 new state to add, the prairies, mountains, rivers, 

 springs, minerals and plants of Arkansas, present 

 a wide field for investigation. The geologist 

 would find an ample field for observation. There 

 has yet been no survey made, except a running 

 trip by Feaihersionhaiigh, in which he could see 

 but little, and of that little he said almost nothing, 

 except that he met with liie old red sand stone. 

 W. W. Stevenson. 



MALARIA. 



From tlie Edinburgh Pliilosopliical Journal. 



On the spontaneous evolution of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen in the waters of the western coast 

 of Africa and elsewhere. 



In the course of a lecture on this subject, delivered 

 at the Royal Institution, by Professor Daniell, he 

 observed, that it was curious that the impregnation 

 ofthe waters of Western Africa with this deleteri- 

 ous gas had so long escaped attention. In water 

 seaward forty miles its presence can be detected ; 

 and it exists in considerable quantity in the Volia, 

 in Lopez Bay, in the Grand Bonny, &c. ; it 

 spreads over an area of 40,000 square miles, from 

 about 8° north to 8° south latitude. The origin ol 

 this vast accumulation of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 Mr. Daniell attributes, not to volcanic action, not 

 to the decomposition of pyrites, nor to the process 

 of the decay of animal matier, but to the action 

 and reaction of the vegetable matter carried down 

 by the tropical rivers, and the sulphates always 

 Vol. 1X.-63 



more or less present in sea-water. This, more- 

 over, he has proved by experiment. Last winter 

 he placed some lidlcn leaves in a jar of new 

 river-water; also a simihir proponion in a second 

 jar, with three ounces of salt, and in a third, with 

 a like quantity of the sulphate of soda — all closely 

 stopped, and a card-bouril, with acetate ol' lead', 

 over each. Alter having been kepi three months 

 ill a warm closet he examined them. The first 

 emitted the common smell of decayed leaves ; the 

 second that of a pleasant conserve ; but the third, 

 no words could convey the slinking odor, nause- 

 ous beyond all description. This of itself was 

 sufficient to establish the generation of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen ; but furiher, the usual black- 

 ening ofthe lead of the card-board in this Jar only 

 leli no doubt on the matter. Wherever, then, sea- 

 water holding sulphates in solution mixes with 

 fresh water and vegetable matter, this gas must 

 be produced, and its effects on animal lifeare well 

 known. It is a record in Italy, as well as in Essex, 

 that where the sea has been prevented flooding 

 the marshes, that locality, previously very sickly, 

 had become perlectly salubrious. To sulphuretted 

 hydrogen,^ therefore, Mr. Daniell ascribes the 

 dreaded malaria, as also the deadly slinking 

 miasma of Africa, producing languor, nausea, dis- 

 gust, and death. The jungle-fever of India, also, 

 he thinks attributable to its presence. The soil 

 abounds with sulphates of magnesia and soda; 

 must not, therefore, quantities of suiphuretted 

 hydrogen be generated in the jungle-swamps % 

 Besides the direful consequences to the health of 

 man visiting the deadly shores of Africa, this sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen does him great injury in a 

 commercial point of view. The copper-sheathing 

 of vessels is rapidly desirojed. Mr. Daniell ex- 

 hibited a sheet taken from the Bonelta in August 

 1840, on her return tlom the African station. 

 Although new not many months before, it was 

 eaten into holes, with a deposite on the one side of 

 the protochloridejof copper, and of the black sul- 

 phuret of copper on the other. A plate exhibited, 

 taken from the Koyal George, was in a good state 

 in comparison with it. The latter had been acted 

 on for sixty years by sea-water, but, be it remem- 

 bered, by sea-water alone, not impregnated with 

 sulphuretted hydrogen. On it there was no trace 

 of a sulphuret. These, then, were the two prin- 

 cipal and important points illustrated by Mr. 

 Daniell ; and the question put by him, and answer- 

 ed in the affirmative, was. Can science indicate a 

 remedy finr these evils? For the former, lumiga- 

 tion with chlorine. Chlorine and sulphuretted 

 hydrogen cannot co- exist. Chemical action in- 

 stantly takes place ; sulphur is thrown down, 

 hydrochloric acid formed, and malaria and miasma 

 nowhere ; the destroyer destroyed. For the lat- 

 ter, the destruclive agent is not decomposed, but 

 its action is directed \o a less costly material. Cop- 

 per is to be protected by zinc, for which suljdiuret- 

 ted hydrogen has the stronger affinity ; and so 

 long as the laiter metal is present, ilxe Ibrmer is 

 free from the attack of the gas in solution. This, 

 it will be readily seen, is SirH. Davy's pr nciple, 

 which involved the use of zinc or iron ; but in the 

 case of su'phuretted hydrogen, zinc and noi iron 

 must be employed. Mr. Daniell regretted that 

 Davy's zinc-protectors had been so soon abandon- 

 ed, and only because the copper, not acted upon 

 , by the muriatic acid, became a nucleus for earthy, 



