274 Hans Christian Oersted. 



tion alluded to was the specimen examined from Trieste, which did 

 not afford any appreciable flocculent matter, on dissolving in acid. 

 The greatest quantity of organic matter was found in stalactites of a 

 deep yellow colour, highly crystalline and uniform in character, and 

 in the portions examined perfectly homogeneous, and free from layers 

 or intervening bands, indicating different periods and changes in de- 

 position. As the presence of iron could not be found in the acid 

 solution, it is inferred that the colour of these yellow stalactites must 

 be owing, in great part, to combined organic matter, existing as 

 crenate of lime. In specimens, like the spar ornaments from the 

 Rock of Gibraltar, with which all are familiar, the colouring and 

 delicate shading is also pi'obably due to organic matter. 



Dr Hayes informs me that he has also found organic matter in 

 Arragonite, in sufficient quantity to separate in flakes, while the spe- 

 cimen was dissolving in acid. 



From these statements it must, I think, be inferred, contrary to 

 the view of Liebig, that organic matter does exist in stalactites gene- 

 rally, as an acid combined with the lime, and imparting to them their 

 various colours. I would by no means call in question the accuracy 

 of the experiments of Professor Liebig, further than that, as far as 

 my observations extend, crenic acid in the presence of lime, and 

 combined with it, passes over like oxalates, upon heating, into car- 

 bonates, without perceptible blackening. 



It may be here added, that Professor Johnston of England de- 

 scribes a compound of alumina with crenic acid, occurring in caves of 

 granite upon the coast of Cornwall. This mineral has received the 

 name of Pigotite, and is observed in places where the surface-water 

 trickles down over the granite rocks. From this it may not be in- 

 appropriate to apply the term crenite to those lime formations in 

 which crenic acid occurs in considerable quantities. 



Results similar to those announced above, have been obtained by 

 Dr C. T. Jackson, as well as by Dr Hayes of Boston. Dr J. Law- 

 rence Smith informs me, that he has frequently met with crenic acid 

 in lime concretions from Asia Minor, and its existence in stalactites 

 was also announced by Dr Emmons of Albany, some years since. 

 My results can therefore be considered but as the verification of those 

 obtained by others. 



Obituaries of Oersted, Morton, and De Savigny. 



1. Hans Christian Oersted. 



The name of Hans Christian Oersted, the discoverer of 

 electro-magnetism, has been added to the long list of those 

 whom continental science has recently been called upon to 



