New Earth— The Princess Dashkoff. — Deaths. 95 



NEW EARTH. 



KJaproth has discovered a new e^th in an ore which has 

 hitherto been supposed to contain tungsten. He has given 

 it the name otoc/iro'it earth. It seems to form the connect- 

 ing link between the earths and the metallic oxides. It 

 produces, like yttria, a reddish-coloured salt with sulphuric 

 acid, and is precipitable by all the prussiates ; but it differs 

 from yttria in not forming sweet salts, in not being soluble 

 in carbonate of ammonia (or but little so), and in acquiring, 

 when ignited, a light brown colour. It also diners from, 

 yttria by not being fusible either by borax or bv phosphates, 

 with which yttria fuses into a colourless transparent globule. 



THE PRINCESS DASHKOFF. 



We intended to have given the life of this lady, lately 

 directress of the. Imperial Academy of Russia, along with 

 the portrait that appears in the present number of our work; 

 but not having been able yet to meet with sufficient mate- 

 rials, we must defer it. 



DEATHS. 



At Madagascar, the meritorious botanist Andre Miehaux, 

 author of the History of the American Oaks, and of an Ame- 

 rican Flora. According to an account of him published 

 by De Leuze, he was bred a gardener, and, notwithstanding 

 the many vicissitudes he experienced, had the satisfac- 

 tion of enriching several parts of the earth with plantations. 

 Before the revolution he was sent to New York in order to 

 establish a botanical garden, in which all the plants he had 

 collected in his excursions were to be preserved till he could 

 return to France. In the course of the revolution he ex- 

 pended the greater part of his property to maintain this g;ir- 

 den ; but at length he was obliged to return, and on his 

 voyage home he lost the remainder of it by shipwreck, but 

 saved his plants, for the preservation of which he sacrificed 

 the former. Through a desire of travelling he accompa- 

 nied captain Baudin, but left him at the Isle of France in 

 order to explore Madagascar, and to establish a garden on 

 the coast for the preservation of plants brought from the 

 interior parts of the island. The great fatigue to which he 

 exposed himself hastened his dissolution. 



Letters received at Hamburgh announce the death of that 

 ingenious philosopher and indefatigable traveller M. von 

 Humboldt, who is said to have fallen a sacrifice to the yel- 

 low fever at Acapulco. 



METEOR- 



