AN ACCOUNT 

 OF A NEW SEMI-METALLIC SUBSTANCE, 



CALLED 



MENACANE, AND ITS ORES, 



BY THE LATE G. MITCHEL, M.B. 



* 



READ, JULY 4'\ 1803. 



^INCE the discovery of Mcnacane by Mr. Gregor, the di- 

 stinguishing properties of the pecuHar metaUic substance it 

 contains have been so fully developed, and satisfactorily 

 ascertained, by the united exertions of Kirwan, Klaproth, 

 Vauquelin and Lampadius, that little is left to wish for, so 

 far as the chemical characters are concerned. As an object 

 of natural history, it has, as yet, been little attended to. It is 

 therefore hoped, the following attempt, to suppl}' in some 

 measure that deficiency, so far as the present data allow it, 

 will prove acceptable to the naturalist. It is scarcely neces- 

 sary to observe, that I follow Werner's method most exactly ; 

 as it is to him that we are indebted for the successful vindi- 

 cation of Mineralogy, as an independent province in the 

 foederal state of natural history; and which acknowledges, 

 in Chemistry, the powerful and indispensable ally, not the 

 imperious and arbitrary lawgiver. 



Of the genus Menac we are already acquainted with five 

 species or ores. It is, however, sufficiently probable, that 



c 2 several 



