Miscellanies. 583 



ing them. M. Turpen has discovered, in the cellular tissue of an 

 old trunk of the Cereus Peruvianus, in the Garden of Plants of Paris, 

 where it has been growing one hundred and thirty years, an im- 

 mense quantity of agglomerations of oxalate of lime. They are 

 found in the cellular tissue of the pith and bark. They are white, 

 transparent, foursided prisms, with pyramidal terminations, collected 

 in radiant groups. 



CHEMISTRY. 



1. On the development of Azotic gas in Warm Springs, by 

 C. Daubeny, M. D. F. R. S. Prof, of Chemistry in the University 

 of Oxford. — In a memoir read by Prof. Daubeny, on the 30th Nov. 

 1830, before the Natural History Society of Geneva, of which he is 

 an honorary member, he adduces the fact of the disengagement of 

 azotic gas from thermal springs, as tending to support the theory of 

 volcanic action to which he gave the preference in his work on vol- 

 canoes, published in 1820. This is the theory of Sir Humphry 

 Davy, which ascribes volcanic force to the disengagement of vapors, 

 consequent upon the infiltration of water, through the crust of the 

 earth upon the metallic bases of the alkalies and earths. 



A more simple view of the causes of this phenomena, arises from 

 the belief now entertained, that the interior of the earth is in a state 

 of incandescence, and that the contact of water with this ignited 

 mass, whatever may be its nature, must necessarily occasion con- 

 cussive or explosive forces. 



Prof. Daubeny has examined various hot springs in the region of 

 the Alps, and he cites the authority of other good chemists to prove 

 that those of the Pyrenees, as well as the thermal waters of some 

 other countries, discharge azotic gas, mixed in some cases with car- 

 bonic acid, and occasionally a small quantity of oxygen. 



This copious discharge of azote he considers as the result of that 

 chemical action in the interior of the globe, which gives rise to the 

 increased temperature of these waters. 



The entire nature of these changes, is undoubtedly covered with 

 an impenetrable veil, but the author thinks that the disengagement of 

 azote cannot be referred to the single access of water to any incan- 

 descent substance, — but that it would be the consequence of a com- 

 bustion, which, though proceeding from the infiltration of water, may 

 be maintained by means of atmospheric air. — Bib. Univ. Dec. 1830. 



