DEFLAGRATING CARBURETS, PHOSPHURETS, OR CYANIDES. 57 



of reaction neither with chloro-hydric nor with nitric acid, neither separately 

 nor when mixed. They were not in the slightest degree magnetic. 



About 1822, Professor Silliman obtained globules, which were at first consi- 

 dered as fused carbon, but were subsequently found to be depositions of that 

 substance transferred from one electrode to the other. Several of these fflo- 

 bules were, by him, sent to me for examination, of which none, agreeably to my 

 recollection, appeared so much like products of fusion as those lately obtained. 



Formerly plumbago was considered as a carburet of iron, but latterly, agree- 

 ably to the high authority of Berzelius, has been viewed as carbon holding 

 iron in a state of mixture, not in that of chemical combination. It would not, 

 then, be surprising if the globules which I obtained consisted of carbon con- 

 verted from the state of charcoal into that of plumbago. 



VII. — V 



