243 Chemical Observations upo?i Spathic Iron. 



the same description, all the products have not been exa- 

 mined with the same care ; and it may be possible that some 

 of the varieties mav have contained other earthy substances 

 which mav have been considered as lime ; a circumstance 

 which might have induced him to say, that he never found 

 spathic iron entirely free of it. 



Bergman, in making known the existence of manganese 

 in the same mineral, and that it was to Us strong propor- 

 tion in spathic iron that the property was owing which this 

 ore has of yielding steel, has announced a fact of great im- 

 portance, and his opinion has been regarded as almost 

 proved. 



If some doubts could have been raised upon the exactness 

 of this result, they could only have been relative to the 

 quantity of manganese; but we know that nitric acid and 

 sugar, emploved bv Bergman to separate the manganese of 

 iron, are very inexact methods. 



M. Sage, in his Analysis and Concordance of the three 

 Kingdoms, admits no lime into spathic iron 5 but he ac- 

 knowledges the presence of manganese in the same propor- 

 tion as the Swedish chemist, and he says he obtained the 

 sulphate of this last metal in white prismatic tetrahedral 

 crystals, which crystallized before martial vitriol. This 

 form is that of the crystals of sulphate of zinc, and made 

 him believe at first that this last metal existed in spathic 

 iron; it was, without doubt, the same form which Bayen 

 had observed, and which made him draw the same conse- 

 quence. The last opinion of M. Sage appears to me to be 

 susceptible of some objections. In fact, if these crystals 

 arc owinsr to manganese, they would have another form ; 

 thev would not he white, but slightly red : in short, they 

 would not crvstallize except after sulphate of iron, that of 

 manganese being much more soluble. 



M. Bucholz published, about a year ago, in the Journal 

 Allemand, edited by Messrs. Klaproth, llennstadt, Sec, 

 the analysis of a mineral, which, from the description he 

 gives, is easily recognized as spathic iron. He there an- 

 nounces . r >Q-> in 100 of iron in the state of black oxide, and 

 •.'> of lime, which he seemed to regard as foreign to its 



composition. 



