412 Dr. Thomas Thomson on the 



about 22 years ago from Mr. Henland, and I think it pro- 

 bable, that it was about that time, or not long before it, 

 that this mineral was discovered. No allusion is made to 

 it in Klaproth's paper on the analyses of the Finland Tan- 

 talite written in 1809.* And, what is more singular, Hoff- 

 man in the last volume of his Mineralogy, published in 

 Freiberg in 1817, makes no mention of the Bohemian 

 columbite, and says, that the specific gravity of the tanta- 

 lite, as stated by Wollaston and Klaproth is too low,t 

 shewing clearly, that at that time he was ignorant of the 

 existence of the Bohemian columbite, though, before that 

 period, I had a specimen of it in my cabinet. Hauy in his 

 Traite cle Miner alogie, 2nd edition, published in 1822, 

 (tom. iv. p. 391) notices the Bohemian columbite, which 

 he calls tantalite, and which, he says, had been recently 

 discovered at Bodenmais, in a granite which contained also 

 beryls, iolite and oxide of uranium. But it is obvious from 

 his statement, that he was not aware that any difference 

 existed between the Bodenmais columbite and the tantalite 

 of Finland. For he gives 6*5 as the specific gravity of tan- 

 talite, shewing that he had never seen, or, at least, never 

 examined the Bohemian columbite. 



Mr. William Phillips, in the third edition of his Minera- 

 logy (page 270), published in 1823, notices the Bohemian 

 columbite. But he gives its specific gravity 6*464, and 

 states its primary form to be an oblique four-sided prism of 

 94° and 86°. A statement inconsistent with the measure- 

 ments of a crystal in possession of Mr. Brooke, and which 

 he himself gives on the authority of that eminent crystal- 

 lographer. A comparison of these measurements with 

 those given in Haidinger's translation of Mohs's Mineralogy 

 (vol. iii. p. 390), leaves no doubt, that Mr. Brooke's crystal 

 was from Bodenmais, and that it is specifically different 

 from the Finland tantalite. 



M. Gustav Rose, in his Elemente der Krystallographie, 

 published in 1833, has divided the minerals, previously 

 confounded together on the continent of Europe under the 

 name tantalite, into two species. The one, consisting of 

 the specimens found at Bodenmais and the Massachuset 

 specimen in the British Museum, he calls coliimhite: the 



* Beitrage, v. 1. t Hoftman's Handbuch iler Miiieralogie, iv: i?, IP.'i. 



