1825.) 
Sees aaa | 
SPIRIT OF PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOVERY, AND OF THE 
VARIOUS SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 
—z 
Analysis of a Species of Phosphate of Iron 
from the department of Vienne, Upper.*— 
This mineral is of a brown colour, and 
crystallizes in the form of needle-like rays, 
as some specimens of manganese, with small 
blue specks. - It produces a green olive dust. 
Exposed for some time.to contact with the 
air, it acquires a reddish heat and colour, 
and Jeses weight in the proportion of 
0.081: 0,1. Five grammest treated with 
hydrochloric acid, left aresiduum of 15.00ths, 
eomposed of grains of quartz and mica. 
The solution, which was of a brownish 
yellow colour, was treated with an excess 
of strong solution of potass. The precipi- 
tate (washed in boiling water, until it ex- 
hibited no further signs of alkaline) weighed, 
when well dried, 304. It was then recog- 
nized to be a compound of oxide of iron 
and manganese, which were separated by 
boiling in hydrochloric acid, mitigated with 
water, -afterwards diffusing the solution 
through a litre (nearly 24 wine pints) of 
this liquid; and, by degrees, precipitating 
the oxide of iron by the carbonate of potass. 
This oxide being again washed in cold, and 
then in boiling water, dried till ofa red heat, 
weighed 0.551. The oxide¥of manganese 
remained in solution in the liquor, and was 
precipitated by a sub-carbonate of potass, 
washed and calcined to a red heat: its 
weight being then equal to 0.072 of the 
paroxide. This experiment, four times re- 
peated, afforded a» mean of the chief con- 
stituents of this mineral in its entire form. 
Peroxide of Iron---- 56.2  Phosporic Acid 27.84 
of Manganese 6.76 Water---+++-- 9.2 
Bul. Univ. ed 
; 100.0 
The absorption of moisture by papers of 
different kinds, after being dvied strongly 
before a fire, then weighed, exposed to 
much damp for twenty-four hours, and then 
weighed again, have been found by Mr. T. 
Griffith to be as follows :— 
Foolscap---- 18 2 per cent. of the dry weight. 
Cartridge -- 17 1 ditto. 
Brown------ 15 3. ditto. 
India ------ ll 6 ditto. 
Filtering -- 5 0 ditto. 
Brande’s Journ. No. 37. 
Native Gold, in larger and more valuable 
lumps than usual, has lately been found in 
the mines. of Slatousk, in the province of 
Orenburg, in Russia; nine of these lumps, 
found in one day, weighed 58\bs. The largest, 
* Comprising the late province of Limosin—its 
capital is Limoges.—Lait. 
+ A gramme is a French weight, containing about 
19 grains, 576 of which (French) are equal to 472.5 
(English). More accurately, a gramme contains 
18.827 grains, and is the weightof a cubic centimetre 
of water. A centimetre = 0.39370 Eng. in. [Brun- 
ton's Compendium. 
’ Montury Mac. No. 415. 
weighing 16lbs., was immediately sent off 
to be presented to the Emperor. 
An improved Filtering Apparatus has 
been invented by Mr. Donovan, of the 
Dublin Society, which will be found ex- 
tremely useful for filtering such liquids as 
are liable to be affected by the atmosphere, 
The apparatus consists of two glass vessels, 
the upper vessel, which contains the solu- 
tion or liquid, having an air-tight tube pro- 
jecting from its bottom, which is inserted 
in the mouth of the lower vessel, either by 
mean of a perforated cork, or by having 
the tubes ground to fit. The lower vessel 
has also a projecting neck, which opens 
perpendicularly to receive the lower end of 
a bent tube, connected with the top of the 
upper vessel; these connections being also 
air-tight. The upper vessel, with its con- 
tents, being thus placed on the lower 
vessel, and the connecting pipes fixed in the 
two necks, it is obvious that as the liquid 
percolates through the filter into the lower 
vessel, it will displace an equal volume of 
air, which will ascend by the small pipe 
into the upper vessel; thus, the liquid is 
cut off from all contact with the atmos- 
pherie air, except the small portion (equal 
to its own volume) which it displaces from 
the lower jar. In filtering any of the vola- 
tile fluids, as ether, ammonia, &c., the ad- 
vantages of this very simple apparatus will 
be evident. 
Air-blasts.— According to M. Guy Lus- 
sac (who has been making considerable re- 
searches connected with the expansion of 
and heat evolved by the different gases), 
atmospheric air does not undergo any 
change of temperature in passing through 
an aperture, whatever may be the degree 
of pressure of the blast ; but the sensation 
of- cold experienced, in standing near an air- 
blast, arises from the expansion of the air 
into a larger volume, at the instant of its 
evolution from the bellows cr air-shaft of a 
blowing machine. 
The Larva of Insects, which abound in 
stagnant waters at this period of the year, 
have often been known to produce dis- 
tressing complaints when taken into the 
human stomach. . A case of this nature is 
related by Dr. Yule, in the last number of 
the Phil. Journ. A young lady from Dum- 
friesshire had been afflicted for about a 
year with dyspepsia, aggravated by symp- 
toms more than usually severe. She be- 
came daily more emaciated and weak, and 
was concluded to be dying of an incurable 
decline, when (a violent fit of coughing 
coming on) a number of insects of the co-_ 
leopterous kind were observed among the 
ejected contents of the stomach, mixed 
with a considerable quantity of blood. After 
21 this 
