FORMATION OF MINERALS, CLAYS, ETC. 
425 
composition. The presence of C, LI, and N was ascertained 
by elementary analysis ; for the sulphur and phosphorus, a 
given weight of the platinum salt, 0*547 grm. was oxidised 
with nitric acid, and gave 0*458 grm. of sulphate of baryta 
= 11 per cent, of sulphur, and 0*266 of pyrophosphate of 
magnesia = 6 01 per cent, of phosphorus. I also ascertained 
the presence of these two substances by heating a certain 
quantity of the platinum salt with strong caustic ley, when a 
liquid volatile and inflammable alkaloid was obtained, whilst 
the sulphur and phosphorus remained combined with the 
alkali, and were easily detected. I satisfied myself during 
these researches, which have lasted more than twelve months, 
that no sulphuretted nor phosphuretted hydrogen was given 
off; and my researches, as far as they have proceeded, tend 
to prove that the noxious vapours given off during putrefaction 
contain the N, S, and Ph of the animal substance, and that 
these elements are not liberated in the simple form of am¬ 
monia and sulphuretted and phosphuretted hydrogen. 1 also 
remarked during this investigation that as putrefaction pro¬ 
ceeds different volatile bodies are given off. 
Dr. Calvert considers that the completion of these re¬ 
searches will occupy several years. 
THE FORMATION OF MINERALS, CLAYS, LIMESTONE, 
ROCKS, &c., BY WATER IN ITS CIRCULATION THROUGH 
THE EARTH. 
By Professor Ansted, M.A., F.E.S. 
We speak of the grave as silent—we think of the ground 
and the rock as permanent, and almost as if they were eternal. 
We cannot feel that all beneath our feet is changing, and that 
there is a kind of life even in dead matter. We cannot see 
it, but a circulation really goes on in all material substances, 
and it is consistent with apparent and external repose; for if 
we examine and carefully describe an object or a state of 
matter at one time, and afterwards—after a sufficient interval, 
repeat our investigation, we may find perhaps the same form 
but a different substance: there may be the same appearance, 
but there is a new and changed texture. 
Nature indeed knows no repose. The minute atoms of 
which solids are formed, however compactly placed they may 
seem, are removed from each other by a distance which is 
large in proportion to their size—large enough at any rate to 
