Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. 225 



Vice-President, " On the Methods of making the different Pre- 

 parations of Arsenic in Saxony, and on the Process of preparing 

 Smalt or Cobalt in Bohemia ;" accompanied with illustrative 

 specimens and drawings. Tlie author observed, that during his 

 travels upon the continent he had had the good fortune to be 

 admitted into the different mining works ; and that as he exa- 

 mined them in detail, he considered tliat by giving publicity to 

 such information he might be of service to the county of Corn- 

 wall, especially as he had heard that an establishment in the 

 county had to contend with very considerable difficulties in 

 making the different preparations of arsenic ; and it was notorious 

 that cobalt was imported from Saxony at t'le very time that ores 

 of that metal were found in very considerable quantities in Corn- 

 wall. A large collection of original and beautiful drawings il- 

 lustrative of the different machines used in the Saxon mines, 

 together with several models and a complete dress of a Saxon 

 miner, were also presented bv the author. 



Dr. Paris presented to the Society a geological pillar in- 

 tended to exhibit in one view all the different rock-formations, 

 and the relative order in which they occur. The pillar is four- 

 teen feet in height, and composed of spiral shelves, which carry 

 specimens of the different rocks and wind from the base to the 

 capital round a central shaft ; the whole pillar is made to revolve 

 upon its base, so that each specimen may be successively brought 

 into view. Its appearance is altogether very novel and striking. 

 Dealers in minerals will proba!>ly derive an useful hint from it, 

 and adopt a similar method for exposing their specimens to in- 

 spection. 



The Rev. Wm. Gregor communicated some specimens of a 

 mineral of rare occurrence in Cornwall, but which has been lately 

 found in PengcUv Mine in the parish of St. Ewe; it is a com- 

 pound of arsenic and nickel, and has the name of kiipfeniickel. 



Dr. Paris presented a most interesting account of the acci- 

 dents which occur from casual explosion in the mines of Corn- 

 wall, and on the methods of preventing it. 



A Comn)ittee was appointed to devise means for establishing, 

 with an appropriate endowment, a Professorship of Mineralogy 

 and Geology. 



ROYAI. ACADEMY OF .«r(KNCES OF PARIS, \']lhMarch 1817. 



The prize estalilished by M. Lalande, for the most interesting 

 observation or most useful memoir in astronomy, was for this 

 year decreed to M. Bessel, director of the Royal Observatory of 

 Konigsbcrg. 



The late M. Ravrio having often had occasion to observe how 

 Vol. 49. No. 227. March 1817. P much 



