170 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



nation an should be employed in a more definite sense than heretofore. 

 13. That the terminations one and ok should be respectively confined, 

 the former to bodies produced from acids by the abstraction of one atom 

 of carbonic acid, and the second by that of two atoms ; so that the 

 latter term should not be adopted to indicate the essential oils. 14. 

 That where a name expressive of the composition of a body cannot be 

 constructed, one should be formed having reference to some obvious 

 physical or chemical property, and of which the Greek or Latin root 

 can be readily apprehended. Such barbarous and unmeaning terms, 

 therefore, as mercaptan, kapnornor, pittacal, parabanic acid, &c., should 

 be rejected from the vocabulary of science. 15. That bodies produced 

 by natural processes should, in general, bear a name recalling the 

 source from whence they are derived. 10. And, lastly, that although 

 bodies belonging to the same class or type should, in general, have the 

 same termination, yet, that where a substance already familiar to us 

 is shown to belong to a particular type, its designation ought ^not in 

 that case to be altered, so as to bring it into harmony with the 

 other bodies with which it may be thus associated. The above sug- 

 gestions are thrown out rather as embodying the views of the most 

 eminent chemists, so far as these views can be inferred from their 

 practice, than as expressive of any neAV methods or arrangements con- 

 ceived by the author of the paper. 



RELATION OF THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF BODIES TO SIGHT. 



A PAPER with the above title was read by Prof. Horsford before the 

 American Association, Albany, the design of which was to determine 

 the extent of general principles in governing the colors exhibited by 

 metals and other bodies. The following are Prof. II. 's conclusions. 

 " The color of bodies depends upon the extent of surface of their small 

 particles or groups of atoms. Transparency depends upon the arrange- 

 ment of lesser atoms in certain order, constituting large groups. White- 

 ness depends upon such extent of surface of the grains of atoms as shall 

 reflect a light ; or upon the number of thin plates produced by pulveriz- 

 ing transparent bodies as will reflect all the light. Blackness depends 

 upon the subdivision of grains to such minuteness, that they no longer 

 reflect light, or, by producing interference, destroy it. Heat, by sub- 

 division, causes darker shades." 



ARTIFICIAL FORMATION OF MINERALS. 



EBELMAN has published a second memoir upon this subject, contain- 

 ing many valuable additions to our knowledge, and throwing great 

 light upon chemical geology and mineralogy. The method pursued 

 in these investigations was the same employed by the author in his 

 previous researches, and consisted in dissolving the constituents of the 

 mineral to be formed in an appropriate solvent, and submitting the 

 whole to evaporation at a high temperature in a porcelain furnace. 

 Boric acid was the solvent commonly employed, but the author also 

 used borax, phosphoric acid, and certain alkaline phosphates. Of the 



