Notice respecting Nufive Concrete Boraclc Acid. 283 



J<no\vled2:e extends, appears confined to a few particular 

 places. On this account, as well as the great utility of borax 

 in various arts, the discovery of its existence in any new 

 situation n)ay deserve to be recorded. 



Some months a<roMr. Horner was so obliging as to show 

 jnc a collection of volcanic productions from the Lijiari 

 Islands, presented to the Get)!oi:ieal Snciety by Dr. Saunders. 

 They consisted chicflv of sulphur, and of saline sublimations 

 on the lava ; but among these more common substances 

 there were several pieces of a scaly shining appearance, re- 

 sembling boracic acid. The largest of these had been cut 

 of a rectangular shape, and was about seven or eight inches 

 in length, and five or six in breadth, as if it had been taken 

 from a considerable mass. On one side of most of the 

 pieces was a crust of sulphur, and the scaly part itself was 

 yellower than pure boracic acid. To ascertain if the scaly 

 part was coloured bv sulphur, f exposed it to heat in a glass 

 tube ; and after the usual (]uantity of water had come over, 

 there sublimed from it about a tenth of its weight of sul- 

 phur, and the remainder was pure boracic acid. 



Mr. Horner afterwards informed me, that the late Dr. 

 Menish, of Chelmsford, had presented to the Geological 

 Society a specimen which he had received, with some other 

 volcanic productions, from Sicily, but which had been col- 

 lected in the Lipari Islands ; the box containing them being 

 marked " Produzioni Fblconic/ie Raccolle nclle hole Eole 

 da Gius. Lazzari — Lipari." He found it to consist of 

 boracic acid, and it perfectly resembled that I have just de- 

 scribed, havino- the same yellow colour from an admixture 

 of sulphur, and a similar crust of this substance adhering 

 to one side. 



Any future traveller visiting those countries would do 

 well to examine them with a view to this particular object. 

 The boracic acid maybe a more extensive volcanic product 

 than has hitherto been imagined ; for in the account given 

 of its discovery some years ago by Messrs. Hoefer and 

 Mascagni, near Monte Rotondo, to the west oF Sienna, we 

 can have no doubt of its volcanic origin in those places, 

 from the substances which are there described to accom- 

 pany it. 



LI I. Sktteh 



