96 



Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



In 15*3 milligrammes of the ash (the entire quantity at my 

 disposal) I found 5*8 m.grms. of ferric oxide and alumina, includ- 

 ing a trace of phosphoric acid, and 5T m.grms. of lime. An 

 appreciable quantity of sulphate was present, but no silica except 

 in the form of minute particles of quartz. 



In previously published analyses there is no record of the com- 

 position of the peat immediately accompanying the dopplerite, 

 when the substance was found in peat. I had an opportunity for 

 making such an analysis in this case, and the result obtained was 

 as follows : — 



Peat is certainly a mixture of compounds of a highly complex 

 nature, and dopplerite may be quite as complex in character. One 

 cannot venture to deduce formulae from the ultimate composition 

 of either substances; but, for the purpose of more clearly per- 

 ceiving the difference between the two substances, the following 

 formulae may be taken as roughly representing the atomic relations 

 of the constituents, omitting the asli : — 



Peat, . . C 50 H 59 NO 20 

 Dopplerite, . C 4 gH 54 N022 



A legitimate deduction from these figures is, that the transition 

 from peat to dopplerite is an oxidation process such as takes place 

 in the conversion of an alcohol into its corresponding acid. 



It has been suggested that dopplerite is a calcium salt of one or 

 more humus acids ; but Dr. 0. Claessen 1 has shown that this view is 

 not tenable, because the ash varies in different specimens within 

 wide limits. The minimum recorded is 2*23 per cent., and the 

 maximum 14 - 32 per cent. The organic constituents, on the other 

 hand, show no such marked variation, except in the case of nitro- 

 gen. If we exclude one specimen from Aussee, which differs 



1 Mitteil. d. Ver. z. Ford. d. Moorkultur, 1898, p. 198. 



