90 Society of Friendly Searchers into Nature at Berlin, 



the satin spar*; Messrs. Aik in and Allen, wolfram, from 

 which they have obtaine'd the regulus of tungsten, of an 

 equal specific gravity with D'Elhuyarsf; Mr. R. Phillips 

 the schiefer spar, and a variety of carbonates of lime J. 



During the meetings of the society a series of experi- 

 ments on the substances which Klaproth treated in the por- 

 celain furnace of Berlin, have been exposed to the action of 

 oxygen gas on charcoal ; from which, when completed, very 

 interesting results to the mineralogist and chemist will be 

 obtained. 



Our cabinets, the great object of which is to complete 

 the provincial mineralogy, have received large additions 

 from correspondents and members. We should let no op- 

 portunity be lost in completing this useful collection. 



I cannot conclude without mentioning the valuable pre- 

 sent of the mineralogical map of Cornwall, so attentively 

 drawn out, and presented by Mr. Wm. Phillips to the 

 society. 



The committee are at present employed in making a ca- 

 talogue of the specimens we have, which, when printed, 

 will be forwarded to each of the members. — Duplicates of 

 specimens they have, and which are not in possession of the 

 society, will assist much in completing our plan. 



SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDLY SEARCHERS INTO NATURE AT 



BERLIN. 



Thissociety has proposed the following prize question : 

 The disputes in regard to basaltes are terminated ; but the 

 nature of it seems not yet to be ascertained, and therefore 

 a diversity of opinions still prevail respecting it. Since the 

 period when a prize question was proposed on this subject 

 at Berne, geognosia has made considerable progress ; but 

 the geognostic relation of this kind of stone has remained 

 partly a problem, and partly a subject of difference, among 

 pur best geologists. 



It is very remarkable that all the geognosts, both fo- 

 reigners and others, formed in Germany, and particularly 

 under the direction of Werner, never entertain any doubt 

 of the Neptunian origin of basaltes ; but, on the other hand, 

 the French and Italian mineralogists, who have never been 



* A description of the satin spar by Mr. A. Aikin, and Mr. Pcpys's 

 analysis, were published in the xiith volume of the Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, p. 364. 



+ Philosophical Magazine, vol. xiii. p. 407. 



% Philosophical Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 289, 



bevond 



