Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 445 



What Professor Jameson calls brittle silver-glance. The for- 

 mula of this mineral Rose has shewn to be 6 (S, Ag) + Ss, 

 S b ; so that it differs from the Kilbrickenite merely in con- 

 taining silver instead of lead. — Proceedings of the Hoy al Irish 

 Academy, Xo. 24. 1840. 



On the Composition of Pyrope. — Dr Apjohn lately made 

 a brief verbal communication to the Royal Irish Academy on 

 the subject of the composition of Pyrope. This mineral, long 

 confounded with garnet, is known to be distinguished from it 

 by containing chrome, and by exhibiting not the dodecahe- 

 dral, but the hexahedral form. The best analyses of it, how- 

 ever, which are by Kobel and Wachmeister, are obviously im- 

 perfect, of which no better proof can be given than that Gus- 

 tavus Rose in his Crystallography, does not attempt to give 

 the formula of the mineral, but contents himself with enu- 

 merating the different oxides of which it is composed. Under 

 these circumstances, Dr Apjohn conceived that a re-examina- 

 tion of the constitution of pyrope would not be without inte- 

 rest. He therefore undertook its analysis ; and the result has 

 been that he has detected in it yttria, one of the rarest of the 

 earths ; one, in fact which had previously been known to exist 

 only in a few minerals of exceeding scarcity. — Proceedings of 

 the Boyal Irish Academy, Xo. 20. 1840. 



Fosiil Dugongs. — M. de Blainville, in name of a commis- 

 sion composed of MM. Alexander Brongniart, Cordier, and 

 himself, read a favourabe report on a memoir presented by 

 M. Jules de Christol, of which he gave an analysis at the 

 time of its presentation. The memoir is entitled, Eecherches 

 tur dicers ossements fvssilis attrlbu's par Curier a deux Phoqucs, 

 au Lamantin, et a deux espicts d^Hippotames. et rapportes au Me- 

 taxytherium, nouteau genre de Cctacts de la famille des Dugongs. 



M. de Blainville began by making a few general remarks, 

 which were nearly to the same purport as those which we ex- 

 tract from his report. 



" One of the most celebrated naturalists that flourished in 

 the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, 

 Blumenbach, has expressed the opinion, in his Archaeology of 



VOL. XXX. NO. LX. AI'RIL 1841. *f 



