226 Dr Colquhoun on the Argillaceous Ore of Iron, 



Mines^ either by himself, or by the iUves of that establish- 

 ment. * 



Next in importance to the multiplied labours of Berthier, a 

 memoir published by M. de Gallois in 1818, and entitled Sur 

 les Minerals de Fer des HomlUrcs^ ou Fer Carbonate Lithdide, 

 deserves to be mentioned. The author gives in it a short, but 

 excellent history of the mineralogical and geological habitudes 

 of this ore, and exhibits, in one collected view, many important 

 cliaracters of the mineral, which had only been described pre- 

 viously in short and detached notices. It must be admitted, 

 however, that his classification of the varieties of the ore is 

 defective and inaccurate ; neither can we approve of the 

 change which he has proposed in its nomenclature. He sug- 

 gests, that, instead of an argillaceous carbonate, it should be 

 designed lithdide, or stoni/ ; but the latter term has not been 

 adopted by succeeding writers, and is indeed still less descrip- 

 tive and less accurate than the appellation of argillaceous, f 



• Annales des Mines, iv. 359. The same chemist has also published an 

 Analyse de quelques Carbonates natifs, a bases de Chaux, de Magnesie, de 

 fer et de Manganese, (Annales des Mines, viii. 887 ;) Analyse d'un fer 

 CarbonaUJibreux pseudo-morphique, (Journal des Mines, xxvii. 477 ;) Sur 

 les Minerals defer des Houilleres d'Anzin, {Annales des Mines, iv. 353 ;J 

 Sur un Nouveau Gisemenf du Fer Carbonate, (Annales des Mines, iv. 633 ;) 

 Sur les Minerais de fer appeles Mines Doucesf (Annales des Mines, ix. 

 825.) 



+ Annales des Mines, iii. 517. Other memoirs besides these might be 

 cited, which have contributed to extend the knowledge of this ore among 

 the French metallurgists. Thus the ingenieurs MM. Thirria and 

 Lame, in their Memoire sur le Mine de Fer de la Foulte, {department de 

 I'Ardeche), pubHshed in 1820, have given an account of an argillaceous 

 carbonate of iron, which was at that time smelted by means of coke at 

 Vienne. (Annales des Mines, v. 325.) And the ingenieurs MM. 

 Combes and Lorieux, in a note, Sur le fer Carbonate argileux de Lasalle 

 (Aveyron), published in 1823, {Annales des Mines, viii. 431,) have given 

 an account of that mineral, and have pointed out the advantages of esta- 

 blishing a smelting furnace in the district where it occurs. The Richesse 

 Minerale, (vols. i. and iii.) of the learned and laborious Heron de Ville- 

 fosse, a work of much originality and replete with valuable information on 

 every topic relating to metallurgy, deserves also to be mentioned, as con- 

 taining a number of notices of this ore and its metallurgic treatment. 

 The account which he gives of it is indeed very defective, his information 

 having evidently been derived more from report than from personal obser- 

 vation. But he was fully aware of its extreme importance, and expresses 



