Improvement in Geography. Igl 



agusl earth to confirm this suspicion by experiments, he 

 requested me to pay attention during my researches to the 

 acid. I made experiments for the purpose, and was so for- 

 tunate as to produce phosphorus and phosphoric acid, and 

 to find that tlie so called agust earth is actually phosphate 

 of lime. M. Haberle and myself made some experiments 

 on the phosphorescence of pulverized crystals of agustite, 

 which when thrown on a hot plate of iron give a verv lively 

 bright green light : a cr>'stal of agustite rubbed on a piccu 

 of woollen cloth exhibited a very strong attraction for small 

 bodies. All these circumstances assign to the fossil hitherto 

 called agustite a place near to apatite. The phosphate c'" 

 limc^ therefore, has been three times given out as a simple 

 earth ; as ivory earth, bone earth, and agust earth. It is 

 therefore probable that chemists in future will not be so 

 easily led into this kind of en"or. 



IMPROVEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY, 



Mr. Churchman, author of the magnetical charts, has 

 proposed an improvement in the construction of maps, by 

 which the altitude, declivity, and perpendicular height of 

 the liills and mountains throughout any country or any par- 

 ticular district can be indicated. This plan consists in 

 tracing certain lines over the surfaces of the parts intended 

 to be so marked, and is applicable to maps already pub- 

 lished ; that is, to such as have been constructed by a proper 

 survey, as the map of Kent, which has been performed at 

 the public expense, and published under the direction of the 

 Board of Ordnance, and other maps now executing in a si- 

 milar manner. The lines are rendered efficient for the pur- 

 pose proposed, by employing with them an universal pro- 

 portion to ascertain their nspective indications. Such maps 

 would probably be useful for military purposes as well as 

 for matters respecting canal navigation. 



METEOR- 



