108 
Gypsum. 
By ©. O’Suttivan, F.R.S., ete. 
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, MARCH 177TH, 1904. 
Si those of us who live in this locality gypsum is a well-known 
substance, and, indeed, it may be asked by many, what is there 
to be said about it? We all know its composition, where it is found, 
and some, if not all, of its uses. What more is there to be said 
about it ? 
Well, I must admit to many of you, not much, but to those, and 
to all of you, I hope, however, I shall be able to bring facts and 
hypotheses connected with the substance before you to-night which 
will be in some degree interesting if not instructive. 
Gypsum is, in the newer strata, as you know, a widely distributed 
mineral, although, so far, it has been found nowhere in such vast 
masses as in our immediate neighbourhood, at Fauld, Chellaston, and 
in districts extending South and East on the flanks of the Derby- 
shire hills, by Lincoln, Newark and other places in the same 
direction. 
Although Gypsum, of a kind, is obtained in New York State and 
other parts of America, yet the millionaires of the American cities 
come to Fauld for the massive blocks with which to decorate the 
