168 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SIMPLE BODIES IN NATURE. 



M. ELIE DE BEAUMONT in an elaborate paper on "volcanic and 

 metalliferous eruptions," published in the Bibliothcque Universdk fie 

 Geneve, gives an interesting table of the distribution of the simple 

 bodies in nature. The following- is a brief summary of the memoir. 

 The numbers refer to those in the table on the opposite page. 



1. Bodies most generally spread over the surface of the globe, being 

 sixteen in number. We may add titanium, bromine, iodine, and sele- 

 nium, which are generally diffused in small quantities, thus raising 

 the number to twenty, but of these only twelve are found frequently 

 and in abundance. 2. Fourteen simple bodies which enter into the 

 composition of various species of lavas produced by existing volcanoes. 

 Of these, however, sulphur, hydrogen, chlorine, and fluorine occur 

 in lavas only as exceptions, so that the number should be reduced to 

 ten. 3. Fifteen simple bodies composing the ancient volcanic rocks. 

 4. Simple bodies entering into the composition of the basic rocks, or 

 those \vhose mode of eruption has differed from that of volcanic rocks ; 

 such are the serpentines, traps, &c. 5. Simple bodies composing 

 granites or acidiferous rocks, that is, those in which the bases are 

 saturated with silica, such as quartziferous porphyry, granite, &c. 

 6. Simple bodies entering into the composition of stanniferous veins, 

 or veins of substances which accompany tin. 7. Simple bodies of or- 

 dinary or plumbiferous veins and others, to which have been added the 

 bodies that enter into the composition of the crystallized masses con- 

 tained in the geodes of amygdaloids, in the fissures of septaria, &c. 



8. The elements met with in mineral waters. This list is, so to speak, 

 only an extract of the list of bodies which are found in ordinary veins. 



9. Simple bodies found in the emanations of existing volcanoes. By 

 comparing columns 2 and 9 with 5 and G, we infer that the foci of 

 active volcanoes are the poorest in simple bodies of those which have 

 acted at the earth's surface. 10. Simple bodies found in a native state 

 on the surface of the globe. Palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, indium, 

 and platinum do not form lasting combinations but among themselves, 

 and appear to constitute a department by themselves in the midst of the 

 mineralogical world. 11. Bodies found in aerolites, to the number of 

 twenty-one, all of which are bodies already known at the surface of 

 the globe, fifteen of them being included in the list of the sixteen 

 most widely diffused simple bodies. 12. Bodies which enter most 

 generally into the composition of organized bodies ; they are the same 

 as those occupying the first column, showing " that the surface of the 

 globe contains in almost all its parts every thing essential to the exist- 

 ence of organized beings." 



It is proper to say, that researches published since the preparation 

 of the table would require some alterations and additions in it, while 

 in regard to the distribution of some of the bodies enumerated, other 

 geologists may entertain different views. Editors. 



