Pip wy 
Springs at Lemington Priors. 185 
will enumerate the tests I have used, to avoid use- 
less repetitions. These are, 1. the magnet: to 
this the smallest particle of iron may be rendered 
obedient, by exposing it to a due heat, on charcoal, 
by the blowpipe. 2. The tinge communicated by 
the same process to a globule of borax: this from 
iron is green or yellow; from manganese it is hya- 
cynthine; or, when the globule is more loaded 
with the metal, a.fine rich red. This colour disap- 
pears by the blue conical flame; and may be re- 
produced by the gentler yellow flame which sur- 
rounds the cone. g. Fusion. with nitre or with 
carbonat of soda: manganese imparts to them a fine 
blue’colour; but if it be mixed with the oxyd of 
iron, the colour is green, | 
Vil. AN HYPOTHESIS TO EXPLAIN THE 
CAUSE OF THE PHA NOMENA, 
The first hypothesis which I framed, to account 
for the facts in question, was deduced from the well 
known property which manganese possesses of oxy- 
genating the muriatic acid. My reasoning was as 
follows.—Since, during the solution of the black 
oxyd of manganese in the muriatic acid, a portion 
of the acid becomes oxygenated, it must follow: 
that, if this portion should meet and combine with 
a metallic oxyd, the salt, formed by such an union, 
must be super-oxygenated. But in this state of oxy- 
dation, doubtless, is a great part of the iron which is 
VOL. V, a 
