256 Chronicles of Science. [ April, 
favourably does the engineer, Mr. Matthew Loam, think of it, that 
he is ‘about to introduce this boring machine into West Seton, a 
neighbouring mine, of which Mr. Loam is the engineer. 
It will be in the memory of our readers that some interesting 
and important experiments have been carried out in some of the 
collieries of Durham, and in the gas works at Barnsley, on safety- 
lamps. It had been found that, with improved ventilation, many 
of the lamps called safe were not so, owing to the rapidity with 
which the current of air, mixed with carburetted hydrogen, was 
driven through the wire gauze. ‘The result of the experiments, 
most of which have been reported in the ‘Transactions of the 
Institute of Mining Engineers,’ has been to prove that, with but 
slight modifications, several forms of the safety-lamp can be ren- 
dered actual lamps of safety. 
10. MINERALOGY. 
EVEN in a science that makes such tardy advance as Mineralogy, it 
is highly desirable that its literature should from time to time be 
collected, classified, and epitomized, so that the student may possess 
periodical records of its progress, arranged in a form convenient for 
reference. In 1843 Von Haidinger of Vienna undertook this task, 
and prepared a report on mineralogical progress during that year. 
Haidinger’s example was followed by Dr. Kenngott, who issued 
similar works, reviewing the science from the year 1844 to the close 
of 1861. At length, however, the perseverance even of a German 
gave way, and since 1861 nothing of the kind has appeared. The 
much-felt want of a continuation of Kenngott’s “ Forschungen ” in- 
duced the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna to offer a prize 
of 1,000 Austrian florins, placed at its disposal by the Archduke 
Stephen, for a record of mineralogical research, extending from the 
beginning of 1862 to the close of 1865. We now learn from the 
German journals that the labour of collecting and arranging this 
four years’ literature has been accomplished, and that the prize has 
been awarded to some diligent compiler whose work bears the 
motto, “Nunquam otiosus.” On the publication of this work, the 
mineralogist may congratulate himself upon having a complete 
series of reference-books, extending over nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury. Let us hope that the good work of continuing this record 
may never again be allowed to lapse. 
Under the name of Woodwardite, Professor Church some time 
ago described a new mineral, which occurs as a beautiful blue incrust- 
ation coating a Cornish killas or clay-slate. M. Pisani, the French 
chemist, has lately examined this mineral, and does {not scruple to 
demolish the species at once. Woodwardite, says M. Pisani, so 
