110 DRAININGS. 



Wherever in nature an acid body meets with a 

 basic one, and unites chemically (that is, most inti- 

 mately) with it, a similar neutralization is produced, 

 and coincidently with this an exactly similar disap- 

 pearance of the acid, and also of the basic or alka- 

 line properties of the constituents of both, although 

 both are still present in the newly formed salt. Thus 

 harmless common salt is formed from pungent mu- 

 riatic acid and caustic soda, etc. Put now the neu- 

 tralized fluid into the spoon, and allow it to evapo- 

 rate ; in this case a considerable white saline residue 

 will be left, whereas previously the hartshorn alone 

 evaporated without leaving any deposit. This res- 

 idue is the newly formed salt, or sulphate of am- 

 monia, in which the volatile ammonia is held so 

 firmly by the sulphuric acid, that at an ordinary, 

 nay, even at a tolerably high temperature, it no 

 longer evaporates. 



When sulphuric acid is dropped into putrid drain- 

 ings the same process occurs, as the disappearance 

 of the pungent odor when the point of neutralization 

 is attained very plainly demonstrates. Here, too, the 

 ammonia is so firmly held, that it can no longer fly 

 off, and complete security, even in long-continued 

 preservation of the drainings, is given against the 

 loss of their fertilizing elements. By this means, 

 indeed, even that volatilization which takes place in 

 the ground where putrid drainings are poured, and 

 which may be concluded, from the intensity of the 

 stench that is thence emitted, to be far from incon- 



