ON  THE  VEGETABLE  ORIGIN  OP  DIAMONDS.  383 
There  is,  moreover,  nothing  extraordinary  in  the  presence  of 
this  substance  in  the  air,  when  we  remember  that  sulphurous  acid 
and  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  produced  in  the  air,  are  readily 
transformed  into  sulphuric  acid,  and  that  sea-salt,  procured  from 
sea-water,  gives,  with  this  acid,  sulphate  of  soda. 
Sulphate  of  soda  is  not  the  only  substance  which  can  give 
supersaturated  solutions  ;  acetate  and  carbonate  of  soda,  sulphate 
of  magnesia,  &c,  have  the  same  property.  I  am  now  engaged 
in  studying  them,  and  intend  soon  to  lay  the  results  before  the 
Academy,  and  hope  to  be  able  to  deduce  from  them  an  analytical 
process  applicable  to  substances  suitable  for  supersaturation,  by 
which  their  presence,  even  in  infinitesimally  small  quantities, 
may  be  ascertained.  All  the  dusts  which  I  have  assayed,  and 
which  contain  crystallized  sulphate  of  soda,  have  been  actionless 
on  the  acetate,  this  salt  being  in  fact  very  rarely  present  in  the 
air. 
I  had  the  honor  of  assisting  M.  Pasteur  in  his  experiments,  at 
the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  relative  to  generations  called 
spontaneous.  There  I  first  thought  of  studying  supersaturated 
solutions ;  their  crystallization  being,  as  I  believe  I  have  proved, 
attributable  to  the  action  of  particles  of  sulphate  of  soda  held  in 
suspension  in  the  air,  or  deposited  on  the  surface  of  bodies,  there 
will  doubtless  be  great  similarity  either  in  the  mode  of  experi- 
menting, or  in  the  results,  between  my  work  and  that  of  M. 
Pasteur,  relative  to  the  inferior  germs  of  organization. —  Compt. 
Mendus,  Ix.  833,  from  Chemical  News,  London,  June  23,  1865. 
ON  THE  VEGETABLE  ORIGIN  OF  DIAMONDS. 
We  have  already  mentioned  that  Professor  Goeppert  obtained 
the  prize  offered  by  the  Dutch  Scientific  Society  for  an  Essay 
on  the  vegetable  origin  of  Diamonds,  and  we  are  now  able  to 
give  a  short  abstract  of  this  highly  interesting  essay. 
Since  Lavoisier  showed  that  diamonds  were  composed  of  pure 
carbon,  very  different  opinions  have  been  entertained  about  their 
origin,  some  believing  them  to  be  produced  by  Plutonic,  others 
by  Neptunian  agency.  Newton  inclined  towards  the  latter  view, 
and  Brewster  agrees  with  him.    In  1842  Liebig  pronounced  the 
