256 Col. Beaufojtf*s Astrommiial Observations. [Oct. 



washing the marquctas * of silver with soap and rags, as is done 

 at Tasco, in order to remove the black powder, or oxide of 

 another metal, which has much resemblance to selenium; at 

 least Citizen Mendez and I have found, amongst the Tasco 

 minerals, biseleniuret of silver, in small hexagonal tables, with 

 rounded edges and angles, as if they had been fused ; their 

 colour wa^le^d grey, they were very ductile,^s may be seen in 

 our journal, the Smif No. 102, September 24, 1823, The object 

 would be better attained by treating the alloy with sulphuret of 

 antimony, on account of the greater affinity of rhodium for 

 sulphur, and that is certainly the mode adopted by a certain 

 person, who purified a quantity last year worth 1800 piastres, 

 making a great secret of his process, as if this were the age of 

 mystery, or the Mexicans resembled the inhabitants of Otaheite. 



The preceding analysis only too plainly shows the wretched 

 state of our laboratory in Mexico, after having been for thirty 

 years under the direction of so distinguished a chemist as 

 M. Elhuyar, the discoverer of Wolfram and Cerium. It is true 

 that under the old government, this savant fpund himself 

 obliged to become a man of business, undoubtedly much against 

 his inclination ; for it is impossible, that he who has once 

 imbibed a taste for science can ever abandon it. 



Mexico, Dec. 9, }S2^r 



We have translated the preceding paper almost verbatim from 

 the article in the June number of the Annales de Chimie, for 

 the present year. It is not, in some places, wholly free from 

 obscurity, but whether the fault lie with the author or the 

 French translator we cannot determine. We have given it, to 

 the best of our ability, faithfully as we have found it. C. 



Article IV. 



Astronomical Observations^ 1825. 

 By Col. Beaufoy, FRSi i* 



Bmhcij Heath, near Stanmore 



Latitude 51° 37' 44*3" North. Longitude West in time I' 20'93", 



Ik r^f 



"X 5- 



Observed Transits of the Moon and Moon-culminating Stars over the Middlt Wire of 

 the Transit Instrument in Sidereal Time. 



1825. Stars. Transits. 



Aug. 22— ft Ophiu n^ 15' 45-89" 



22.-Moon'8 First or West Limb.... 17 29 16-39 



• The cakes, or balls of amalgam, after the mercury has been driven off by distil- 

 Ution. 



