314 Scientific Intelligence. [Oct, 



II. — Anatase, Naphthaline, Bi-Calcareo Carbonate of 

 Barytes, Chemical Symbols. 



The following' remarks are from a very intelligent correspondent 

 Bath, dated September 19th : — 



" Sir, — Permit me to thank you for having presented the scientific 

 public with the Records of General Science. I am glad so much 

 attention is paid in the work to the progress of chemistry and mine- 

 ralogy, sciences which, in my humble opinion, have been much ne- 

 glected in the other periodicals. As a very humble labourer in the 

 field, I have to communicate a little information on one or two 

 points, of which you are at liberty to make what use you please. 



1. The accompanying specimen (of which I beg your acceptance) 

 was sold to me some years ago, by Mr. Kennard, the mineral dealer, 

 who called it anatase, and said that its locality was the neighbourhood 

 of Dartmoor. Some time afterwards a friend brought me another spe- 

 cimen, labelled Titanium, Virtuous Lady, Tavistock. Its external^ 

 characters correspond with those of anatase, as mentioned by Phillips 

 in his mineralogy, 3rd edition, 1823. He mentions that ^' the Comte 

 de Bourn on cites a crystal on granite from Cornwall, as being in his 

 own collection." The matrix of the present specimen is chlorite, 

 and in another specimen it is accompanied by spathose iron and cop- 

 per pyrites. If it be anatase, it is well worth while to notice it as 

 a new and English locality of that rare mineral. 



2. I have also sent a mass presented to me by Mr. Lake, the intel- 

 ligent superintendant of our Coal Gas Works, and which proves that 

 napthaline is the product, sometimes of a Coal Gas work, as well as 

 of an Oil Gas one. (Mr. Connell has mentioned an instance of the 

 latter in No. 26 of Jameson's Philosophical Journal). It was found 

 in the principal main to a distance of between two and three hun- 

 dred yards from the station On exposing it to a slight heat, the 

 crystals of naphthaline are sublimed, and may be collected in a glass 

 bell, beautifully white. My attention was first attracted to the 

 matter by observing the wires which had been introduced into the 

 main to remove the obstructions existing in them, covered with a 

 white shining substance resembling flakes of spermaceti, and soiled 

 with a brown fluid, containing (I suppose) some of the substances 

 described by Runge in your first number. There was a considerable 

 quantity of it in the main, and much trouble was occasioned in get- 

 ting rid of it, as boiling water would scarcely touch it. 



3. I would put the following query. Is not the new form of 

 baryto-calcite described by Mr. Johnston in the January number of 

 the Philosophical Magazine for this year, identical with the bical- 

 careo-carbonate of barytes of Dr. T. Thomson ? I have a specimen 

 of the latter, and am in hopes of obtaining one of the former. The 

 external form appears to me to be the same, and it is possible Mr. 

 J. may have made a mistake in the exact determination of the con- 

 stituents. As the dimorphism of baryto-calcite rests upon the de- 

 termination of this point, I thought it not amiss to throw it out for 

 consideration." 



Note. — 1. I have examined the mineral specimen which ray corre- 

 pondent has been so very obliging as to send me, and find it to possess 

 all the characters of anatase. 



