SS =" 
value, as it will only cool it, and make jffmoré readily deposit its sooty 
particles. ‘The impure gas of the coal, on the contrary, may be infla- 
med by a due admixture of air. In conclusion, Mr. Dircks stated a gen- 
eral principle, that on the large scale of the furnace, air should be ap- 
plied to the impure gaseous products of the fuel by a source indepen- 
dent of that supplying air by the ash-pit to the solid fuel. 
It was recommended by the General Committee, that the future title 
of this Section be “‘ Chemistry and Mineralogy, with their application to 
_ Agriculture and the Arts.” ree 
[The remainder of our Abstract we are reluctantly compelled to de- 
fer until the July No.] 
— 
1. Analysis of Meteoric Iron from Burlington, Otsego Co., N. Y—- 
Dr. L. C. Beck, in his report on the mineralogical survey of New York, 
p- 383, makes mention of a mass of malleable iron, said to be native, 
which he saw in the cabinet of the Albany Institute. It does not ap- 
pear that any chemical examination was made of the mass. 
Last November, Mr. E. C. Herrick, being in Geneva, N. Y., received 
mentioned by Dr. Beck in his Report above quoted, and that both be- 
longed to a larger mass, which when found was supposed to weigh from 
one hundred to two hundred pounds avoirdupois. 
learned, that Dr. Eli Pierce of Athens, N. Y. was the gentleman who 
originally communicated the specimens and information to Dr. Hadley. 
On Mr. Herrick’s return to this place, the mass was placed in my 
hands for examination. Its strong resemblance to the iron found in North 
Carolina, by Prof. Olmsted, (this Journal, Vol. xvit, p- 140,) and exam- 
ined subsequently by Prof. Shepard, (Vol. XL, p- 369,) immediately 
struck me ; it was divided by broad lamine, crossing each other at an- 
gles of 60° and 120°, cutting up the surfaces into triangular and thom- 
bohedral figures. It broke with a hackly fracture and only with the 
greatest difficulty, on the thinnest edges. 
- Two deep and broad sutures marked its two most regular and i 
site faces, made by the wedge or chisel by which the blacksmith (into 
whose hands the larger mass unfortunately came) severed it from the 
adjoining portion. “It bore the marks of having been intensely heated 
in the smith’s forge, and numerous microscopic crystals, of a black 
color and brilliant lustre, covered. some parts of its surface. They 
Vol. xxv1, No. 2.—Jan:-March, 1844. 51 
