303 
Cast lro7i^ Steely and Malleable Iron, 
By treating iron with diluted hydrochloric acid, the sulphur 
escapes almost entirely as sulphuretted hydrogen ; the same is 
the case with antimony escaping as antiraoniuretted hydrogen. 
On the contrary, scarcely any portion of the arsenic escapes 
with the hydrogen. 
The case is different when iron is treated with nitric acid. 
When fragments of iron are treated with nitric acid of such 
a specific gravity that the iron is moderately attacked in a re- 
tort whose beak is connected with a solution of carbonate of 
barytes and acetate of copper or lead, and only a slight evo- 
lution of binoxide of nitrogen takes place, the nitric oxide is 
then first absorbed by the air in the uppermost part of the re- 
tort, and a partial vacuum is produced which makes the liquid 
rise in the beak of the retort several inches. A few hours af- 
terwards pure azote is evolved, acting neither on the carbonate 
of barytes nor on the acetates or nitrates of metals. Shortly 
after, the evolution of gas again ceases, and after the action of 
the acid on the iron stops, a new partial vacuum is produced 
and the liquid is found to stand in the beak of the retort several 
inches above its level. 
For example, I took 20 grains of dead gray cast iron from the 
forges of Creuzot, departement de Saone et Loire, treated it 
with hydrochloric acid specific gravity 11*5, and left residuum 
inspection I found those liinips covered with stalks of a black vegetation, 
exactly like the mould on ink or sour starch paste, and differing only in 
colour j the stalks were from about a half to three-quarters of a line in 
height, and terminated with a little knob on the top. The next day the 
little knob on the top assumed an orange red, and on further exposure to 
the air, the stalks became of the same colour. 
Viewed through the microscope, these little mosses appeared opake, of a 
varnished yellow colour like the petals of Everlasting, and having a long 
curved cylindric capsule on the end. The capsule was alternately expanded 
and contracted very similar to the duodenum of animals, and curved into a 
circle, so that the end almost met the point when the capsule was attached 
to the stalk ; and when viewed under the microscope superficially, the knobs 
appeared to consist of a perfect ring fixed to the stalk. I found only one 
stalk, which shot forth two of these capsules from the same point, curved 
up just like the horns of a ram. No operculum could be discovered ; the end 
of the capsule was found perfectly rounded like a globule with rather a nar- 
row neck, and when pressed with a fine needle, the capsule burst, emitting 
extremely fine seeds, exactly like the genus Phascum, No traces of leaves 
could be detected, unless we reckon some entangled and interwoven black 
filaments on the surface of the decomposed iron. Not being sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the cryptogamic branch of botany, I am not able to decide 
on the generic character of these small vegetations. 
On the retort being packed up in moss and afterwards washed with rain 
water, the seeds of the moss must have been derived from one of these 
sources ; but the most extraordinary circumstance is their becoming fixed 
in these decomposed fragments of cast iron, serving as a very fertile mould, 
and growing rapidly in hydrochloric acid gas and sulphuretted hydrogen, 
