INORGANIC ORIGIN OF AMMONIA. 123 



which it is dissolved are evaporated. The quantity 

 of boracic acid which escapes with a cubic foot of 

 steam, at the temperature of boiling water, cannot 

 be detected by our most sensible re-agents; and 

 nevertheless the many hundred tons annually brought 

 from Italy as an article of commerce, are procured 

 by the uninterrupted accumulation of this apparently 

 inappreciable quantity. The hot steam which issues 

 from the interior of the earth is allowed to pass 

 through cold water in the lagoons of Castel Nuova 

 and Cherchiago ; in this way the boracic acid is 

 gradually accumulated, till at last it may be ob- 

 tained in crystals by the evaporation of the water. 

 It is evident, from the temperature of the steam, that 

 it must have come out of depths in which human 

 beings and animals never could have lived, and yet 

 it is very remarkable and highly important that am- 

 monia is never absent from it. In the large works 

 in Liverpool, where natural boracic acid is con- 

 verted into borax, many hundred pounds of sulphate 

 of ammonia are obtained at the same time. 



This ammonia has not been produced hy the ani- 

 m^al organism, it existed before the creation of hum^an 

 beings ; it is a part, a primary constituent, of the 

 globe itself* 



The experiments instituted under Lavoisier's guid- 

 ance by the Direction des Poudres et Saltpetres, have 

 proved that during the evaporation of the saltpetre 

 ley, the salt volatilizes with the water, and causes 

 a loss which could not before be explained. It is 

 known also, that in sea-storms, leaves of plants in 

 the direction of the wind are covered with crystals 

 of salt, even at the distance of from 20 to 30 miles 

 from the sea.f But it does not require a storm to 

 cause the volatilization of the salt, for the air hang- 

 ing over the sea always contains enough of this sub- 

 stance to make a solution of nitrate of silver turbid, 



* See extract from Professor Daubeny's Lectures, in Appendix, 

 t This was observed in the United States after the great storm of 

 September 23, 1815. See Professor Farrar's account in Mem. A. A. S. 



