74 NITRIFICATION AND THE FERTILIZATION OF SOILS. 
fertilization of soils; it will perhaps also recognise that the 
facility with which I have succeeded in converting ammo- 
nia into nitric acid will serve, in case of any future conti- 
nental blockade, to render Europe more independent of 
India and Chili in regard to its supplies of nitrates or nitric 
acid ; that, under other circumstances, by an inverse reac- 
tion, we shall find in the nitrates of India and Chili abun- 
dant sources of ammonia, turning to advantage the hydro- 
gen, and especially the sulphuretted hydrogen, which at 
present is lost in many operations of the arts, and moreover 
proves of considerable injury to the public health. 
In conclusion, I may mention that the various reactions, 
the results of which are noticed in this article, have led me 
to the two following applications : — 1st, 1 have based a new 
process for determining the amount of nitric acid and for 
the analysis of the nitrates, upon the property of these 
bodies of being entirely converted into ammonia or into 
ammoniacal salts under the influence of nascent hydrogen ; 
2d, by submitting to the action of nascent hydrogen various 
binary or saline combinations of metals, I have completely 
reduced a large number of these insoluble or sparingly solu- 
ble compounds in weak acids. 
By operating upon native crystalline compounds, such 
as zigueline, azurite, malachite, carbonate of lead, oxide of 
tin, &c, the metal obtained preserves the crystalline form 
of the combination in which it existed. — Ibid, from Comp- 
tes Rendus. 
