The method employed by M. Senarmont is the method of dissolution by means of water. It
is, without doubt, the method employed by nature in caverns and
calcareous crevasses, where, after a number of years, often very small
stalactites of crystallized carbonate of lime are produced. These
productions, and the phenomena of thermal springs, where the pressure
and heat are often very high, and the deposits of mineral waters,
suggested to M. de Senarmont the method of his experiments.
He
introduced into the most resisting sort of glass tubes the elements of
the substances he wished to produce. He placed together gelatinous
silica, and a body susceptible of furnishing carbonic acid by the
action of heat (bicarbonate of soda), and having closed the tubes at
the lamp, submitted them to variable temperatures and variable pressure.
By this process M. Senarmont obtained a great number of crystallized minerals, the most remarkable of which was quartz.
THIRD METHOD.
M. Daubree had pointed out in 1841 the principle upon which, in 1849, ne produced artificially a certain number of crystallized minerals. The idea was to compel the vapour of water to react at
