PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



125 



discussion subsequently ensued, as to the lithological 

 character of the oohtes of that district and of the West of 

 England generally. 



PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



February 1st. 1842. — Mr. Ebelmen submitted a memoir 

 on the nature of the various vapours developed in smelting^ 

 as observed at different altitudes in the furnaces. The 

 following results were stated : 



1. — The gaseous vapours, on coming out of a furnace 

 heated by charcoal or wood, contain watery vapour, car- 

 bonic acid, and oxides of hydrogen and azote, but no 

 carbureted hydrogen. At six, or eight feet below the 

 mouth of the furnace, the watery vapour is not found, 

 and the proportion of oxide of carbon increases, while those 

 of hydrogen and carbonic acid diminish, according as the 

 observations are made lower and lower down in the furnace. 



2. — When coal is used jointly with wood, in heating the 

 furnace, the carbonization of the vapours takes place in an 

 internal zone, and the water is expelled from the metal at a 

 very low altitude. He found that the proportion of gas 

 which traverses a certain zone of the furnace per minute, is 

 greater according as it is further from the bottom of the 

 furnace. 



A communication was read from M. Russiger, a German 

 geologist, on certain geometrical observations, made in order 

 to ascertain the relative altitudes of the Dead Sea, in 

 Palestine, and in the Mediterranean. It appeared that not 

 only was the Dead Sea 1,314 feet lower than that of the 

 Mediterranean ; but also from the geological phenomena 

 observed on its shores, that the formation of the basin in 

 which it lies, was antecedent to all historic epochs. Hence 

 the supposition that the sea was formed by the sinking 

 of the plain of Pentapolis, is incorrect. 



