40 
CONDENSATION OP NITROGEN. 
differ from those that have been announced by other ex- 
perimenters. Thus he has been able to administer a large 
dose of the oil of ergot to a young animal, without any ap- 
parent effect being visible. The alcoholic extract ex- 
hibited the same inefficiency. He has not, moreover, found 
the same crystalline matter, crystine, which has been an- 
nounced by Mr. Vallet, and regrets that the author has not 
indicated the method by which he obtained it. 
Journ. de Pharmacie. 
The point of interest in this analysis, is the detection of 
that peculiar principle, Fungin, which is the characteristic 
of the Fungi tribe of vegetables, and which corroborates 
the views of those naturalists, who regard the origin of 
Ergot as fungous. — Ed. Jlmer. Journ. Pharm. 
ART. XI.— ON THE CONDENSATION OF NITROGEN BY 
VEGETABLE MOULD, AND ON THE NUTRITIVE POWER 
OF THE SOIL. 
BY PROFESSOR MULDER. 
Mulder does not admit with Liebig, that the whole of 
the nitrogen of unmanured soil can be derived from the 
ammonia contained in the atmosphere. Even supposing, 
what has not been proved, that 1 lb. of rain-water con- 
tained i gr. of ammonia, this quantity could never occur ex- 
cept at the commencement of a rain, and the water subse- 
quently falling could contain scarcely any or no ammonia. 
The author, in his researches on the constituents of mould, 
has been led to quite a different mode of accounting for the 
nitrogen of the soil, as will be seen from the memoir in our 
last number. From that it is evident that ammonia is pro- 
