Conversations on Chemistry Part 77

I recollect having read an account of that grotto, and of the cruel experiments made on the poor dogs, to gratify the curiosity of strangers. But I understood that the vapour exhaled by this cave was called _fixed air_.

MRS. B.

That is the name by which carbonic acid was known before its chemical composition was discovered. --This gas is more destructive of life than any other; and if the poor animals that are submitted to its effects are not plunged into cold water as soon as they become senseless, they do not recover. It extinguishes flame instantaneously. I have collected some in this gla.s.s, which I will pour over the candle.

CAROLINE.

This is extremely singular--it seems to extinguish it as it were by enchantment, as the gas is invisible. I never should have imagined that gas could have been poured like a liquid.

MRS. B.

It can be done with carbonic acid only, as no other gas is sufficiently heavy to be susceptible of being poured out in the atmospherical air without mixing with it.

EMILY.

Pray by what means did you obtain this gas?

MRS. B.

I procured it from marble. Carbonic acid gas has so strong an attraction for all the alkalies and alkaline earths, that these are always found in nature in the state of carbonats. Combined with lime, this acid forms chalk, which may be considered as the basis of all kinds of marbles, and calcareous stones. From these substances carbonic acid is easily separated, as it adheres so slightly to its combinations, that the carbonats are all decomposable by any of the other acids. I can easily show you how I obtained this gas; I poured some diluted sulphuric acid over pulverised marble in this bottle (the same which we used the other day to prepare hydrogen gas), and the gas escaped through the tube connected with it; the operation still continues, as you may easily perceive--

EMILY.

Yes, it does; there is a great fermentation in the gla.s.s vessel. What singular commotion is excited by the sulphuric acid taking possession of the lime, and driving out the carbonic acid!

CAROLINE.

But did the carbonic acid exist in a gaseous state in the marble?

MRS. B.

Certainly not; the acid, when in a state of combination, is capable of existing in a solid form.

CAROLINE.

Whence, then, does it obtain the caloric necessary to convert it into gas?

MRS. B.

It may be supplied in this case from the mixture of sulphuric acid and water, which produces an evolution of heat, even greater than is required for the purpose; since, as you may perceive by touching the gla.s.s vessel, a considerable quant.i.ty of the caloric disengaged becomes sensible. But a supply of caloric may be obtained also from a diminution of capacity for heat, occasioned by the new combination which takes place; and, indeed, this must be the case when other acids are employed for the disengagement of carbonic acid gas, which do not, like the sulphuric, produce heat on being mixed with water. Carbonic acid may likewise be disengaged from its combinations by heat alone, which restores it to its gaseous state.

CAROLINE.

It appears to me very extraordinary that the same gas, which is produced by the burning of wood and coals, should exist also in such bodies as marble, and chalk, which are incombustible substances.

MRS. B.

I will not answer that objection, Caroline, because I think I can put you in a way of doing it yourself. Is carbonic acid combustible?

CAROLINE.

Why, no--because it is a body that has been already burnt; it is carbon only, and not the acid, that is combustible.

MRS. B.

Well, and what inference do you draw from this?

CAROLINE.

That carbonic acid cannot render the bodies with which it is united combustible; but that simple carbon does, and that it is in this elementary state that it exists in wood, coals, and a great variety of other combustible bodies. --Indeed, Mrs. B., you are very ungenerous; you are not satisfied with convincing me that my objections are frivolous, but you oblige me to prove them so myself.

MRS. B.

You must confess, however, that I make ample amends for the detection of error, when I enable you to discover the truth. You, understand, now, I hope, that carbonic acid is equally produced by the decomposition of chalk, or by the combustion of charcoal. These processes are certainly of a very different nature; in the first case the acid is already formed, and requires nothing more than heat to restore it to its gaseous state; whilst, in the latter, the acid is actually made by the process of combustion.

CAROLINE.

I understand it now perfectly. But I have just been thinking of another difficulty, which, I hope, you will excuse my not being able to remove myself. How does the immense quant.i.ty of calcareous earth, which is spread all over the globe, obtain the carbonic acid with which it is combined?

MRS. B.

The question is, indeed, not very easy to answer; but I conceive that the general carbonisation of calcareous matter may have been the effect of a general combustion, occasioned by some revolution of our globe, and producing an immense supply of carbonic acid, with which the calcareous matter became impregnated; or that this may have been effected by a gradual absorption of carbonic acid from the atmosphere. --But this would lead us to discussions which we cannot indulge in, without deviating too much from our subject.

EMILY.

How does it happen that we do not perceive the pernicious effects of the carbonic acid which is floating in the atmosphere?

MRS. B.

Because of the state of very great dilution in which it exists there.

But can you tell me, Emily, what are the sources which keep the atmosphere constantly supplied with this acid?

EMILY.

I suppose the combustion of wood, coals, and other substances, that contain carbon.

MRS. B.

And also the breath of animals.

CAROLINE.

The breath of animals! I thought you said that this gas was not at all respirable, but on the contrary, extremely poisonous.

MRS. B.

So it is; but although animals cannot breathe in carbonic acid gas, yet, in the process of respiration, they have the power of forming this gas in their lungs; so that the air which we _expire_, or reject from the lungs, always contains a certain proportion of carbonic acid, which is much greater than that which is commonly found in the atmosphere.