Paper, 'On the occurrence of aluminium in certain vascular cryptogams' by Arthur Herbert Church

Description

Church writes: 'Most of the older and fairly complete analyses of plant-ashes disclosed the presence of alumina in sensible quantities. Gradually, however, as analytical methods became more exact, it was generally recognised that this constituent had been derived from extraneous sources and not from the plants themselves; alumina had in fact been introduced by the employment of glass and porcelain vessels, of impure reagents, and of imperfectly cleansed vegetable products. Even when traces of this oxide were obtained in analyses conducted under the most favourable conditions, an adventitious origin was assigned to them, and so the item of alumina disappeared entirely from the tables of the constituents of plant-ashes.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Biochemistry / Botany

Received 29 March 1888. Read 26 April 1888. Communicated by Joseph Henry Gilbert.

A version of this paper was published in volume 44 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the occurrence of aluminium in certain vascular cryptogams'.

Reference number

PP/12/5

Earliest possible date

1888

Physical description

Ink and coloured pencil on paper

Page extent

10 pages

Format

Manuscript