26 REPORT — 1864. 



On the Molecular Constitution of Carbon Compounds. By A. R. Catton. 



On the Direct Conversion of Acetic Acid into Butyric and Caproic Acids. 



By A. R. Cation. 



Description of an Apparatus for Estimating the Organic Impurities in Atmo- 

 spheric Air and in Water. By Stewaet Clakk. 



On the Thermal Waters of Bath. 

 By Dr. Datibext, F.B.S., Professor of Botany, Oxford. 

 After alluding veiy briefly to the mineral constitution of the Bath waters as 

 affording no adequate explanation of the medicinal vii'tues ascribed to them, the 

 author proceeded to one point of scientific interest connected with theii' appear- 

 ance — namely, the large volume of gas which they have gone on constantly dis- 

 engaging, apparently from time immemorial. The natm'e and amount of this 

 were made the subject of the author's examination, in the year 1832, dui-ing an 

 entii-e month ; and the result amved at was that the gas consisted mainly of 

 nitrogen, which is present, indeed, in most other thermal waters, but in none so 

 copiously as at Bath. Judging from the circumstance that the majority of these 

 springs are associated with volcanos, and likewise that the same gas is freely 

 evolved fi-om the latter both in an active and in a more dormant condition, we 

 may faiiiy infer that the evolution of nitrogen at Bath is in some manner or other 

 connected with the same widely-spreading and deep-seated cause. And, if this be 

 the case, the phenomenon in question acquires an additional interest, as afibrding 

 a possible clue to the true nature of the processes which give rise to volcanos as 

 well as to thermal springs. Now this evolution of niti-ogen seems best to admit 

 of explanation by supposing a process of combustion to be going on in the interior of 

 the globe, by which oxygen may be abstracted from the common air which pene- 

 trates to these depths, whilst the residuary nitrogen is evolved. What may be 

 the nature of the bodies by which this process of combustion is maintained must, 

 from the depth at which the latter is earned on, be ever shrouded in mystery ; but 

 it is at least certain that, whilst they cannot belong to the category of those 

 which supply fuel for the ordinary processes of combustion of which we are our- 

 selves eye-witnesses, there is nothing in the natme of the products resulting from 

 volcanic action inconsistent with the idea that metals possessing a strong affinity 

 for oxygen, but not already combined with it, might, if they existed in the interior 

 of the earth, be instrumental in producing the supposed combustion. And, if we 

 indulge in speculation, it may be maintained, with some show of probabilitj', that 

 the basis of the earths and alkalies which constitute the present crust of the globe 

 would have existed originally uncombined with oxygen, and therefore must at 

 one time have been subjected to that very process of oxidation and combustion 

 which we imagine to be at the present time continued. The author therefore 

 suggested that volcanic action may be owing to certain chemical reactions pro- 

 ceeding in the interior of the globe between the constituents of air and water, on 

 the one hand, and the metallic bases of the earths and alkalies on the other. 

 After developing this theory, the paper concluded with pointing out a practical 

 use to which the waste waters of the thei-mal springs of Bath might be applied 

 after they had fed the several baths, suggesting that, if, instead of being at once 

 discharged into the river, they were first conveyed through undergToimd pipes a 

 few feet beneath the surface within a given area, the warmth imparted to the soil 

 would prove highly favourable to the culture of tender exotics, and that, if the 

 ground were further protected from cold by a glass roof, a winter garden might be 

 obtained with scarcely any fm-ther expense beyond that of the original outlay. 



On the Action of Hydrogen on Polycyanides*. By Thomas Faielet. 

 * Published in extenso in Journal of Chem. See, Ser. 3. vol. ii. p. 362, 



