1858.] DATJBENY AMMONIA FROM VOLCANOS. 295 



January 20, 1858. 



William Adams, Esq., Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, and the Rev . 

 Francis H. Morgan, M.A., Hemel Hempstead, were elected Fellows. 



The following communications were read : — 



1 . On the Evolution of Ammonia from Volcanos. By Charles 

 G. B. Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Botany in 

 Oxford, &c. 



In the year 1849, Wohler ascertained that the copper-coloured cry- 

 stals found so frequently in the ferruginous mass, technically called 

 "bear" or " horse," which accumulates in the hearths of the iron- 

 smelting furnaces, and which Dr. Wollaston a long time before had 

 pronounced to consist of titanium, were in reality composed of the 

 cyanide and nitride of that metal, containing 1 8 per cent, of nitrogen 

 and 4 per cent of carbon. 



It has been since found, that the same nitride is also obtained in 

 the process recommended by Rose for procuring the metal, when 

 chloride of titanium together with sal-ammoniac is heated in a glass 

 flask ; in which case metallic scales, which had been formerly re- 

 garded as consisting of metallic titanium, but which now turn out 

 to be a compound of it with nitrogen, are left in the vessel after the 

 other matters had sublimed. 



The facts just mentioned, however interesting to a chemist, would 

 not be of a nature to bring before this Society, were it not for their 

 bearing upon one part of the Theory of Volcanos, namely on the 

 evolution of ammonia, and the consequent presence of ammoniacal 

 salts amongst the products of their operations. 



This, then, is my excuse for proposing to occupy a few minutes 

 of your time on this occasion with some comments upon these facts, 

 and upon the inferences to which they appear to conduct us. 



I should, perhaps, in the first instance remind you, that sal-am- 

 moniac, or ammonia combined with muriatic acid, ranks amongst 

 the commonest products of volcanic action, and is found in such 

 quantities, efflorescing on the surface of newly ejected lavas at 

 Vesuvius, as to be regarded worth collecting for the purposes of the 

 arts. 



The mode of its production has given rise to much speculation ; 

 but I shall confine myself to three hypotheses that have been sug- 

 gested to account for it : namely, to one by Professor Bischoff, of 

 Bonn ; a second by Professor Bunsen, of Heidelberg ; and a third 

 by myself. 



The first of these may, it is presumed, be dismissed in a few 

 words. 



It is founded upon the assumption that bituminous, coaly, or other 

 organic matters exist in the neighbourhood of volcanos, by the de- 

 composition of which ammonia comes to be generated *. 



* See his ' Elements of Chemical Geology,' Engl. Transl. p. 212. 



