462 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



morpliite, mimetite, campy lite, by Michel: of pyrochroite, by de Schul- 

 teu. Papers upon the above subjects will be fouud in Yolnines ix and 

 X of the Bulletin of the French Mineralogical Society. 



A paper of esi)ecial interest on this class of topics is that of Doel- 

 ter^ on the synthesis of the micas by fusing together various silicates 

 with metallic fluorides. Thus the fusion of an aluminous hornblende or 

 augite with sodium or magnesium fluoride yielded a magnesia mica 

 (meroxeue) ; from an aluminous augite, with little iron, a mica resem- 

 bling phlogopite was obtained, and from glaucophane a magnesia mica 

 containing a considerable amount of soda. By fusing together the sili- 

 cate K2A]2Si208 with potassium or sodium fluoride in potassium fluo- 

 silicate, muscovite was obtained. With magnesium silicate a mica near 

 phlogopite was the result, and if iron silicate was also used a brown 

 mica near meroxeue was obtained. The same potassium silicate, with 

 lithium silicate and potassium or sodium fluoride, yielded a mica with 

 large axial angle. When i^eunine was fused with potassium silicate a 

 product resembling phlogopite was the result; a magnesium garnet un- 

 der like conditions, a meroxeue mica low in iron. Andalusite fused 

 with the fluorides of potassium, of silicon, and aluminium yielded a 

 muscovite, and by the addition of lithia andiron, a mica near zinnwal- 

 dite. From vesuvianite mica was seldom obtained, the common result 

 being scapolite. The author also describes his results in obtaining the 

 calcium silicate, wollastonite, by fusing together OaSiOs with calcium 

 and sodium fluorides. There have also been recent contributions to the 

 same subject by Hautefeuille'^ and by Kroustchoft? 



NEW MINERAL OCCURRENCES. 



A point ot much interest is the discovery of a diamond-like form of 

 carbon in the meteoric stone of Novo-Urei, Penza, Russia, which fell 

 September 2U, 1886. This is described by Jerofeieff and Latschinoii'.* 

 The meteorite was not unusual in general appearance, having a dark- 

 gray color and consisted chiefly of olivine, augite, and nickeliferous iron. 

 In the course of the analysis, however, it was found that from 2 to 2J 

 per cent, was not attacked by acids ; nearly two-thirds of this proved 

 to consist of amorphous carbon, and the remainder in the form of light- 

 giay grains was also nearly pure carbon. These grains had a specific 

 gravity of 3.1, and a hardness sufficient to scratch corundum, so that 

 the ('(iu(!lusion was reached that they were true diamond, perhaps in 

 a massive form like the carbonado. The occurrence of graphitic carbon 

 in isometric form in an Australian iron is mentioned under the descrip- 

 tion of cliftonite beyond. 



The lare aluminium silicate, dumortierite, remarkable forits fine blue 



' Min. petr. Mitth., 1888, vol. X, 67. 



2 C. R., vol. CIV., 508. 



3 Min. petr. Mitth., vol. ix, 55. 



■•Verhandl. Russ. Min. Ges. at St. Petersburg, vol. xxiv, 263. 



