New Phenomena in Chemistry. 



183 



solved, releasing their carbon. However, thisis but a con- 

 jecture ; the reaction certainly deserves study. 



The mere intimation that carbon, the great protean 

 thing in nature, may after all have a metallic origin, is 

 very interesting. Those who believe in the ammonium of 

 Berzelius or the hydrogenium of Graham, need not fear 

 to examine the claims of carbon to a metallic parentage, nor 

 does the existence of such a metal seem so improbable 

 when we remember the electric conductibility of two of the 

 allotropic forms of carbon, gas-coke and plumbago; the 

 first already replacing, in the voltaic batteries of the pre- 

 sent day, the electro-negative elements, platinum, copper 

 etc., while the latter replaces similar electro-negative ele- 

 ments when brushed, in the form of plumbago powder, 

 upon the surface of the mould or plaster-cast which the 

 electro-plater desires to coat with copper or other metal. 



If metallic carbonium exists, it may be assumed to be an 

 electro-negative metal. It is true that some forms of 

 carbon are highly inflammable, but are they more so than 

 Graham's hydrogenium? Graphite at ordinary tempera- 

 tures is far from combustible, and when it burns, or when 

 the diamond burns in oxygen gas, wrought iron will burn 

 also. No one doubts that iron is a metal, yet one of its 

 purest forms is pyrophoric, taking fire and burning on 

 contact with the atmosphere. To associate graphite with 

 sulphur and phosphorus is to place it, a good conductor of 

 electricity, side by side with the very enemies of traveling 

 magnetism. For how many ages was molybdenite undis- 

 tinguished from graphite, and who is there now that can 

 instantly distinguish the one from the other? It is 

 true that molybdenite is a sulphide of ^molybdenum and 

 graphite a pure allotropic form of carbon, but may there 

 not be one more form of carbon ? There is no sub- 

 stance in nature more readily recognized as a metal by the 

 unlearned than graphite; to this day it is impossible to 



