Scentijlc Intelligence. — Chemistry. 373 



Since the discovery that the diamond consists of pure crystallized 

 carbon, chemists have reflected on the possibility of determining their 

 crystallizations artificially. No means, however, have yet been dis- 

 covered of rendering charcoal, or pure carbon, fluid. The action of 

 the Voltaic Battery on charcoal points seems to afford traces of incip- 

 ient fusion, but the effect probably arises from the ashes of the com- 

 bustion, which containing silex and potash, furnish a kind of glass which 

 is sometimes very hard, but which has none of the properties of dia- 

 mond. If the heating power of the battery be very great, the char- 

 coal is scattered in impalpaple powder over the adjacent apparatus.* 

 Some Savans have proposed to unite a high temperature with strong 

 compression. On the 11th of November last, Cagniard de la Tour 

 presented to the Academy of Sciences, tubes containing, as he sup- 

 posed, crystaUized carbon, but they were ascertained by the commit- 

 tee appointed to examine them, to be earthy sihcates of a remarkable 

 composition. M. Gannal on the 3d of November, informed the 

 Academy of another method which he had employed, viz. treating 

 carburet of sulphur, with phosphorus and water. The phosphorus 

 combines with the sulphur,, and the carbon is supposed to form crys- 

 tals on the surface. More attempts of M. Gannal, though not pub- 

 licly announced before, have been long known to some of his friends. 

 One of his associates, a jeweller, who has been two years at Gene- 

 va, presented one of these crystals to the museum. Its weight is 

 about j\ of a carat. But before any thing decisive can be pronoun- 

 ced relative to this discovery, the experiment must be reiterated, 

 and a scrupulous examination made of all the facts. We may add 

 that the employment of weak electric forces, long continued, may, 

 perhaps, effect this crystallization, M. Becqueul having already 

 succeeded upon bodies which appear as difficult to manage as car- 

 bon. — Bib. Univ. Jan. 1829. 



4. Of the influence of air on the crystallization of salts, by M. 

 Graham. (Trans. Roy. Soc. of Edinburgh.) — The well known fact 

 of the sudden crystallization of a saturated. solution of sulphate of so- 

 da, from which the air has been excluded by ebuUition on the read- 

 mission of air, appears still to defy every attempt at accurate explan- 

 ation. Gay Lussac has shewn, that it is not the pressure of the at- 



*This is incorrect; the deflagrator of £)r. Hare volatilizes and fuses the charcoal 

 point, and the higher its power the more readily and effectually is it accomplished. — 

 Ed. 



