Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 249 



in the same manner crystallized in cubes, the edges of which are 

 slightly truncated ; the compound is slowly separated, by the action 

 of weak acids, from the vitreous matter in which it is formed ; its 

 density is =4*10 ; it is identical with the mineral to which M. G. 

 Rose has given the name of Perowskite, which was first found in the 

 Ural, and more recently in the volcanic districts of the Kaiserstuhl. 



The silicate of glucina, when fused with excess of alkaline carbo- 

 nate, yields a semi-vitreous mass, from which microscopic crystals 

 may be separated by the action of acids ; the crystals consist of per- 

 fectly pure glucina ; their specific gravity is 3*02 ; they are not acted 

 upon by acids, excepting hot and concentrated sulphuric acid. 



I have also obtained various accessory products in these experi- 

 ments, as platinum crystallized in very brilliant octohedra and cubo- 

 octohedra. The results which have just been described, differ very 

 clearly from the ordinary phsenomena of vitrification. This, it is well 

 known, occurs in a mass of glass which is slightly softened, but not 

 fused, and the ill-defined crystals which have been obtained, dififer 

 but little in chemical composition from the vitreous mass which sur- 

 rounds them. In the present case, on the other hand, the crystals 

 are formed in the midst of a perfectly liquid mass of glass, and their 

 properties and chemical composition are completely diflferent from 

 those of the vitreous portion. 



In conclusion, I must point out another method of crystallization, 

 which, like the method by evaporation, has its analogue in the ope- 

 rations of the wet method. We might expect that metallic oxides, 

 either simply or combined with each other, would separate in the 

 crystalline state from the fused masses, when these are acted upon 

 by more powerful bases than those primarily dissolved. In this man- 

 ner, by causing fragments of lime to act upon borate of magnesia, we 

 obtain magnesia in diaphanous crystals, the form of some of which 

 is readily determinable by a lens, and which may be isolated from 

 the mass in which they are disseminated by the action of weak acids, 

 which do not attack tliem. These crystals appear identical in form 

 and composition with the native magnesia discovered in the blocks 

 of the Somma, and to which M. Sacchi has given the name of Peri- 

 clase. 



I shall soon lay before the Academy a more detailed memoir 

 upon this subject, and show the consequences deducible from these 

 experiments in explaining the formation of a large number of mine- 

 rals belonging to the alkaliferous rocks. — Comptes Rendus, Mav 12, 

 1851. ,;..,.. 



NEW STATIC AND DYNAMIC THEORY OF ULTIMATE PARTICLiES. 

 BY M. ZANTEDESCHI. 



As the ancient hypotheses of the constitution of matter and bodies, 

 and physical and chemical phaenomena, do not completely respond 

 to the requirements of science in its present state, it appears to me, 

 that by viewing the formation of bodies and the production of pHae- 



