234 Formation of Piussic Acid, t^c. 



lives were lost. Ships which were 20 leagues distant in the 

 open sea, were covered with volcanic ashes. There were 

 three distinct eruptions, each very violent. 



NEWLY DISCOVERED MINES IN FRANCE. 



There have lately been discovered in the environs of Con- 

 folens, in the department of the Charente, and at Melle, in 

 the department of the Deux Sevres, several mines of zinc and 

 lead. The presence of a great mass of metallic matter has 

 been ascertained by a Company formed to make experiments. 

 Sulphat of zinc and lead, in combination with silver, have 

 been found, and submitted to analysis by the most distin- 

 guished chemists of Paris : it has been from 3 to 3^ ounces 

 of silver to the old quintal. Cadmium, a metal lately dis- 

 covered in Hungary, has been detected in these minerals; the 

 uses to which it may be put are, however, not yet very well 

 known. These mines are situated in a country where fuel is 

 abundant and cheap. The Charente and the Vienne flow 

 close by the spot where it is purposed to place the machines ; 

 and the high-road is not far off. Some specimens of the pro- 

 duce of these mines are now to be seen in the Louvre ; and 

 some rich capitalists propose to work them on a grand scale. 

 — Courier Francois. _______ 



rORMATION OF PRUSSIC ACID BY THE IGNITION OF A CAR- 

 BONACEOUS SUBSTANCE WITH NITRATE OF BARYTES. 



In our last number, we gave an extract from Silliman's Jour- 

 nal, respecting the production of cyanogene by the action of 

 nitric acid upon charcoal : the subject has recalled to our re- 

 membrance a notice found among the late Mr. Gregor's papers 

 by Dr. Paris, and published by him in the first volume of the 

 Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall, in which 

 certain effects are described that must have resulted from a si- 

 milar action ; and as we believe the notice in question to be 

 little known, it may be useful to republish it. 



" The species of coal known by the name of culm," says Dr. 

 Paris, " GlanzKohle, is imported, on account of its purity, for the 

 purpose of smelting tin. Mr. Wm. Gregor informed me, shortly 

 before his death, that he had observed amongst the heaps of 

 this coal lumps of a much more dense texture, and which 

 were perfectly uninflammable. In order to decompose it, he 

 powdered it, and added twice its weight of nitrate of barytes, 

 and subjected it to heat in a platina crucible ; when, to his 

 great astonishment, a violent detonation took place, accom- 

 panied with a copious evolution of prussic acid vapours; and, 

 upon examination, he found the residue in the crucible to 



consist 



