Mr Haidinger 07i Berthierite. 353 



Art. XXXII.— Ow Berthierite^ a New Mineral Species. By 

 WiLtiAM Haidinger, Esq. F.R.S.E., &c. Communicat- 

 ed by the Author. 



The species to which the present communication refers is one 

 of thfe numerous resuhs of Professor Berthier's indefatigable 

 exertions to increase our knowledge of mineral productions. 

 No scientific account of it having yet reached this city, I must 

 content myself with giving here what can be extracted from Le 

 Globe newspaper of the 30th June 1827, relative to a meeting 

 of the Institute, held on the 25th of the same month. In that 

 meeting M. Berthier gave an account of the new species, and 

 did me the honour of proposing for it the name of Haidinger- 

 ite, not aware of the same name having been previously appli- 

 ed by Dr Turner * to the diatomous gypsum-haloide, a spe- 

 cies which I had described some time ago, and which Dr 

 Turner had analyzed,-f- and found to be an arseniate of lime 

 combined with less water than in the pharmacolite. In order 

 to avoid the double employment of one name, I take the liber- 

 ty of proposing a new name for the new substance. From my 

 coming thus forward, I trust M. Berthier will perceive my 

 desire of having my name linked with the literary history of 

 the species in quCvStion ; while the mineralogical public will 

 no doubt approve of my proposing the name of Berthierite, 

 which happens tp be unoccupied, and which is peculiarly 

 appropriate to the species in question ; much more so than 

 most of our mineralogical names, as the species was not only 

 discovered and analyzed by M. Berthier himself, but, by the 

 particular process which he devised, rendered useful to the 

 arts. 



The Berthierite is an ore of antimony in the economical 

 acceptance of the word ; as it consists of four atoms of sul- 

 phuret of antimony, and of three atoms of protosulphuret of 

 iron, the antimony being combined with twice as much sulphur 

 as the iron. It occurs at Chazelles, in Auvergne, in a vein 

 which promises to be very productive. It had been worked for 



* Edi?i. Journ. of Science, A^^nl 1827. f Id. October^l825. 



