6f> Boraclc Acid. — Phosphoric Acid in Vegetables. 



attention to the study of volcanoes and volcanic products, and 

 his collection was particularly rich in specimens from the ancient 

 volcanoes of France, and other parts of Europe. These were 

 purchased by M. Beudant for the private collection of the King 

 of France. M. Faujas was also one of the first geologists who 

 saw the high importance of the study of fossils to elucidate the 

 former revolutions of the globe ; and his collection was celebrated 

 for the numerous and well characterized fossil remains which it 

 contained, particularly of the class of vertebrated animals. 



M. Faujas possessed the most perfect tooth of the gigantic 

 Tapir that has yet been discovered. Of these very rare teeth 

 not more than three or four have at present been found in any 

 part of the world. The one belonging to M. Faujas was the 

 hindermost grinder,and is the tooth drawn and described in Cu- 

 vier's Recherches si/r les Osseinens Fossiles, Supplement to the 

 article Tapir. PI. II. fig. 7. This tooth was purchased by Mr, 

 Bakewell, who was then at Paris, together with a tooth of the 

 Mastodon from the South of France, and another species from 

 the Cordilleras, and teeth of the fossil Hippopotamus and fossil 

 Rhinoceros. Several magnificent specimens of fossil fish were 

 in this collection, particularly one of nearly three feet in length 

 from Montebolia in the Veronnais, the Blocklus longirostris 

 (Volta). Among various selections of fossil shells was one series 

 from Plais&ntin, particularly rich in species of which the greater 

 part have their analogies living in the present ocean, as was 

 proved by M. Menard de Lagroil, in a memoir published hi the 

 Annates du Museum d'Hisloire Natiirelle. The simple minerals 

 in this museum were not very numerous, but there were some 

 extremely rare and valuable specimens. 



BORACIC ACID. 



In our last, we noticed the boracic acid found in solution in 

 certain lakes in Tuscany. M. Lucas, in a letter to M. Arago, 

 mentions that this acid is found also in the crater of Vulcano. It 

 is met with on the most heated parts of the surface, where va- 

 pours are continually rising, in a white light state, though some- 

 times soiled and sometimes mixed with sulphur. The incrusta- 

 tions are generally about three-fourths of an inch thick, and 

 sometimes of more than a foot in extent. It is met with in scales, 

 and sometimes fibrous. The nature of these incrustations was 

 ascertained by D, Gioacchino Arrosto of Messina. 



PHOSPHORIC ACiD IN VEGETABLES. 



Mr. Barry, in making experiments on pharmaceutical extracts 

 obtained by carrying on the evaporation in vacuo, " became ac- 

 quainted with the singular fact, that phosphoric acid in a soluble 



state 



