196 Miscellaneous Intelligence 



to' 



10. Prize Question. — The Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, 

 have proposed the following : — 



" Quibus naturae legibus regitur primaria evolutio corporum 

 animalium, et formam sive regularum, normalem, sive ab- 

 normera adsciscant?" 



The author of the best answer to this question will receive a 

 gold medal, of the value of fifty ducats. The Memoirs should 

 be addressed, with the usual forms, before the end of December 

 1820, to the Secretary of the Society, Professor Oersted at 

 Copenhagen. 



§ Mineralogy, Geology, Meteorology, ^c. 



1. Chromate of Iron in Shetland. — It has been recently as- 

 serted that the chromate of iron was discovered in Shetland by 

 Dr. Hibbert. Without wishing to undervalue Dr. Hibbert's 

 labours, we must, in justice to Dr. Traill, remark that he 

 pointed out the existence of this mineral in Unst, many years 

 ago. It is true that he calls it magnetic iron ore, but the ex- 

 istence of a chromate was then unknown ; nor indeed, we 

 believe, had chrome been discovered at the time Dr. Traill 

 wrote his account. The substance, as we understand, is so 

 abundant that the ground is strewed with it, so that it could 

 not be overlooked. 



2. Boracic Acid.—'Dv. Pleischl, of Prague, has given the 

 following as the composition of crystalline hydrated boracic 

 acid : — 



Dry acid 54 



Water , 45 



During the experiments made to ascertain these proportions, 

 Dr. Pleischl endeavoured also to ascertain the action of dry 

 boracic acid on dry chloride of barium. The results coincided 

 with those of Gay-Lussac and Thenard ; no decomposition took 

 place nor was any new compound found. 



3. Fluoric Acid in Mica. — M. Rose, of Berlin, at present 

 working in the laboratory of M. Berzelius, has ascertained that 



