158 Scientific Intelligence. 



VIII. — Antimonial Copper Glance, a new Mineral. 



This mineral was found by Zinten in drusy quartz cavities, at Wolfs- 

 berg. It occurs in the form of four-sided prisms, of which the la- 

 teral edges are so much truncated as to give the crystal a tabular ap- 

 pearance. Colour, lead gray to iron black. Hardness, between cal- 

 careous spar and fluor spar, or 35. Specific gravity, 4748. Lustre, 

 metallic, splendent. Fracture, in the long axis of the transverse 

 fracture, foliated faces of cleavage glassy ; in all other directions the 

 fracture is more or less uneven. 



Before the blow-pipe it decrepitates, and easily fuses in the external 

 flame. On charcoal it gives out the odour of white antimony. Fused 

 with soda it gives a reddish metallic grain, which, by continued heat, 

 gives out an odour. Henry Rose found it to contain from 357 to 

 5-79 per cent, of silica mechanically mixed. Its constitutents are : 

 Sulphur 26-34. Antimony 46-81. Iron 1-39. Copper 24-46. Lead 

 0-56=99-56. The iron is probably combined with copper and sul- 

 phur so as to form copper pyrites, and the lead is probably combined 

 as sulphuret of lead with sulphuret of antimony, forming Federerz. 

 1-39 parts iron require 1*65 sulphur, and 1-62 copper to form pyrites, 

 while to form Federerz we have 0*56 lead + 0-08 sulphur, with 0-4 

 sulphuret of antimony. There remain, therefore, 47 '46 antimony, 

 22-84 copper ; the first requiring 17*36 sulphur, the latter 5-81 

 parts. The formula, therefore, is Sb S -f- Cu S. — (Poggendorff's 

 Ann. xxxv. 357-) 



IX. — Metamorphosis of Plants. 



A Correspondent, Amicus Physiologicus, writing from the 

 Isle of Wight, (11th December), objects to the observations of Pro- 

 fessor Rennie who considers the ideas of Linnaeus, Gbthe, De Can- 

 dolle, Lindley, &c, in reference to the metamorphosis of plants, 

 " wildly absurd, as must at a glance appear to every reader endowed 

 with common sense." Our Correspondent relates an experiment 

 which he (?) conceives to afford an argument in favour of the theory 

 in question. 



Some rose leaves having been boiled with a portion of alcohol and 

 water, so as to abstract their colouring matter, his attention was at- 

 tracted to a leaf which had adhered to the side of the vessel in which 

 the experiment was made, and " in that flower leaf was distinctly 

 traced a leaf of the tree which seemed to form the basis of the leaf 

 of the rose." He concludes " that we may safely infer that flowers 

 are transformed leaves." 



NEW BOOKS. 



Laboratorium, das, eine Sammlung Von Abbildungen und Besch- 

 reibungen der neuesten und besten Apparate, 4 tafeln. Breslau. 



Carus, Dr. C. G. und Dr. A. W. Otto Erlauterungstafeln zur 

 Vergleichenden Anatomie. Barth, Leipzig. 



