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FORMATION OF INORGANIC ELEMENTS, ETC. 
ART. XXI. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUPPOSED FORMATION 
OF INORGANIC ELEMENTS DURING FERMENTATION. By 
J. Denham Smith. 
In the October number of the last year's Philosophical Ma- 
gazine, (vol. xv. p. 329,) there appeared an abstract of various 
papers read at the meetings of the Royal Society, one of 
which, entitled " Additional Experiments on the Formation 
of Alkaline and Earthy Bodies by Chemical Action when Car- 
bonic acid is present, by Robert Rigg, Esq. F. R. S.," at- 
tracted my notice, from the novel and most extraordinary na- 
ture of the results announced in it. 
Although the Royal Society has always carefully disclaim- 
ed any participation in, or support of, the theories and obser- 
vations brought before the public or published by it, yet the 
circumstance of a paper being read to the first learned society 
of these kingdoms, and the author of the paper a fellow of the 
society, gives weight and sanction to the observations adduced. 
This circumstance was one of the chief reasons which led me 
to make the following experiments on the subject of this novel 
formation of inorganic elements by catalytic action. 
I much regret that in the abstract of the paper which ap- 
peared in this Magazine, no details of any of the experiments 
were given ; the substances used, the apparatus and the results 
obtained, only being mentioned. It appears that "the author 
gives a detailed account of several experiments in which su- 
gar, water, and yeast only were employed, and from which he 
deduces the conclusion that alkaline and earthy matters are 
formed by chemical action. In one set of experiments, some 
of which were made in silver, others in china, and others in 
glass apparatus, after the vinous fermentation had gone on dur- 
ing five days, the quantity of ashes obtained was, in the silver 
apparatus, eighteen, in the china nineteen, and in the glass fif- 
teen times greater than the previous quantity. A further ex- 
amination of these ashes showed that they consisted of po- 
