390 Scientific Intelligence. — Mineralogy. 



in economy of nature, than its grand and impressive operation 

 in lightning and thunder. 



8. Meteoric Iron of Atacama. — In the lately published part 

 of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, there is 

 an analysis of this iron by Dr Turner, which is not correctly 

 given. Dr Turner sends the following as the accurate result. 

 Iron, 93.57; Nickel, 6.618 ; Cobalt, 0.535 ; = 100.723. 



MINERALOGY. 



9. Perishable Nature of' Works qf' Man. — No work of excel- 

 lence ought to be exposed to the atmosphere ; and it is a great 

 object to preserve them in apartments of equable temperature, 

 and extremely dry. The roofs of magnificent buildings should 

 be of materials not likely to be dissolved by water, or changed 

 by the air. Many electrical conductors should be placed so as 

 to prevent the slow or the rapid effects of atmospheric electri- 

 city. In painting, lapis lazuli, or coloured hard glasses, in 

 which the oxides are not liable to change, should be used, and 

 should be laid on marble, or stucco encased in stone ; and no 

 animal or vegetable substances, except pure carbonaceous mat- 

 ter, should be used in pigments; and none should be mixed 

 with tlie varnishes. Yet, when all is done that can be done, in 

 the work of conservation, it is only producing a difference in 

 the degree of duration. And from the statements that our 

 friend has made, it is evident that none of the works of a mor- 

 tal being can be eternal, as none of the combinations of a limit- 

 ed intellect can be infinite. The operations of Nature, when 

 slow, are no less sure. However man may for a time usurp do- 

 minion over her, she is cei'tain of recovering her empire. He 

 converts her rocks, her stones, her trees, into forms of palaces, 

 liouses, and ships ; he employs the metals found in the bosom 

 of the «arth as instruments of power — and the sands and clays 

 which constitute its surface, as ornaments and resources of 

 luxury ; he imprisons air by water, and tortures water by fire, 

 to change, or modify, or destroy, the natural forms of tilings. 

 But, in some lustrums, his works begin to change, and in a few 

 centuries they decay and are in ruins ; and his mighty temples, 

 framed, as it were, fiar immortal and divine purposes-r-and his 

 bridges fornied of gcanite, and ribbed of iron — and his walls for 



