Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univers).pdf/77

entering into the reaction, then the quantities of carbonic acid and of lime were determined in the filtered solution.

"Then to run through the scale of pressures of the carbonic acid from the most feeble to the strongest that could be obtained.

"Then to change the temperature and re-commence anew the series of experiments in order to eliminate the influence of heat.

"The experiments establish the fact that pure water in the presence of carbonate of lime, and of an atmosphere containing a determined proportion of carbonic acid, dissolves simultaneously free carbonic acid according to the law of absorption of gases, neutral carbonate according to the solubility of this salt in water free from carbonic acid, and bicarbonate of lime."

The relation found between the tension of the carbonic acid and the proportion of bicarbonate formed is such that: "Equilibrium being established in the solution, the slightest diminution of the tension of the carbonic acid in the atmosphere determined the decomposition of a corresponding quantity of bicarbonate, with precipitation of the neutral carbonate and the emission of carbonic acid gas."

The veteran chemist Dumas, in an article on the normal carbonic acid of the atmosphere, says:^[1]

"In recent times, by a happy application of the principle of dissociation, M. Schloesing has show that the proportion of carbonic acid contained in the air was in relation with that of bicarbonate of lime held in solution in the waters of the sea. When the amount of carbonic acid (in the air) is diminshed the bicarbonate of the lime in the sea is dissociated, the half of its carbonic acid passes into the air, and the neutral carbonate of lime is precipitated from solution" ("deposé").

Another condition which may decompose bicarbonate of lime is simple mechanical agitation of the water holding it in solution. Dittmar in examining samples of ocean water for car-