INORGANIC ORIGIN OF AMMONIA. 7» 



.n the morning, after the drying of the dew, that the glass was 

 covered with crystals of salt on one or the other side, according 

 to the direction of the wind. 



By the continual evaporation of the sea, its salts* are spread 

 over the whole surface of the earth ; and being subsequently 

 carried down by the rain, furnish to vegetation those salts neces- 

 sary to its existence. This is the origin of the salts found in the 

 ashes of plants, in those cases where the soil could not have 

 yielded them. 



In a comprehensive view of the phenomena of nature, we have 

 no scale for that which we are accustomed to name small or 

 great ; all our ideas are proportioned to what we see around us ; 

 but how insignificant are they in comparison with the whole 

 mass of the globe ! that which is scarcely observable in a con- 

 fined district appears inconceivably large when regarded in its 

 extension through unlimited space. The atmosphere contains 

 only a thousandth part of its weight of carbonic acid ; and yet 

 small as this proportion appears, it is quite sufficient to supply 

 the whole of the present generation of living beings with car- 

 bon for thousands of years, even if it were not renewed. Sea- 

 water contains Ta | 00 of its weight of carbonate of lime ; and 

 tMs quantity, although scarcely appreciable in a pound, is the 



* According to Marcet, sea-water contains in 1000 parts, 

 26-660 Chloride of Sodium. 

 4-660 Sulphate of Soda. 

 1-232 Chloride of Potassium. 

 5*152 Chloride of Magnesium. 

 1*5 Sulphate of Lime. 



39-201 

 According to Clemm, the water of the North Sea contains in 1000 parts, 

 24-84 Chloride of Sodium. 

 2 - 42 Chloride of Magnesium. 

 2'06 Sulphate of Magnesia. 

 1*31 Chloride of Potassium 

 1"20 Sulphale of Lime. 

 In addition to these constituents, it also contains inappreciable quanti- 

 ties of carbonate of lime, magnesia, iron, manganese, phosphate of iime, 

 iodides, and bromides, and organic matter, together with ammonia and 

 tarbonic acid. — Liebis-'s Annalen der Chemie, lid. xxxvii., s. 3. 



