Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 235 
interesting to the readers of the Philosophical Magazine to state, that 
in the autumn of the year 1839, whilst engaged in a mineralogical 
examination of a part of the country in the neighbourhood of Ken- 
mare, County Kerry, I discovered a few specimens of this rare mi- 
neral in the carboniferous limestone of that district; and more re- 
cently, when surveying in the vicinity of Bristol, I have succeeded 
in obtaining it in tolerable abundance from the same formation in 
several localities. It occurs either coating the faces of the minor 
joints, or filling up small crannies at the points where several joints 
intercept each other; in the latter situations the pieces sometimes 
weigh nearly half an ounce, in others it appears merely as a fine 
film. 
This interesting mineral has been described as occurring in small 
masses in the lavas of Madeira and other volcanic districts, and also 
as existing under very dubious circumstances at Alston in Cumber- 
land, in minute globules in the interior of small lumps of slaggy ga- 
lena within reach of the surface. 
Inclosed you will find specimens of the metal exactly in the state 
it was found. 
I am, Gentlemen, your obliged Servant, 
Tuomas Austin, Jun., 
1 Paul Street, Kingsdown, Bristol, Mineral Surveyor. 
Dec. 31, 1842. 
ON THE COMPOSITION OF PARAFFIN. BY M. LEWY. 
Paraffin has already been subjected to the researches of various 
chemists ; according to the analysis of M. Jules Gay-Lussac, its com- 
position is the same as that of olefiant gas; its chemical equivalent 
has not hitherto been ascertained, because it does not form any com- 
pounds whatever. 
M. Lewy states that his experiments were performed in the labo- 
ratory of M. Dumas, to whom he was indebted for the various speci- 
mens of paraffin employed in his analyses; some of them were pre- 
pared by M. Malaguti from the bituminous schistus of Autun, and 
from various kinds of wax. Some specimens of rough paraffin were 
purified by M. Lewy himself by repeated treatment with alcohol and 
ether, then distilling the products and again crystallizing them in 
etherized alcohol. 
The paraffin thus obtained was perfectly white, and had the form 
of pearly scales. Its density was 0°89, it fused at about 854° Fabhr. ; 
it may be distilled without alteration, and its boiling point appears 
to be between 694° and 712° of Fahrenheit. 
The mean of eight etait gave as the composition of paraftin,— 
Carbon........ bbe Pde «ie 85°03 
Hydrogen. HL eS pe La 7, 99°90. 
This composition the author remarks does not agree with that of 
olefiant gas, and the simplest formula which can be deduced from it 
he states to be C*® H**, which gives 
CREDGN a0 ctaeetls «<= carn eo 
PIVGRGON stegepce st sss. 14°89-——-99'99. 
