Prof. Steinmann on Kakoxene, a New Mineral Sixties. 163 



Art. XXXIV. — On Kakoxene, a new Mineral Species. 

 By J. Steinmann, Professor of Chemistry in the Univer- 

 sity of Prague.* Communicated from the Author. 



In the iron mine of Hrbeck, belonging to the territory of 

 Zbirow in Bohemia, a kind of clayey brown iron-ore is found, 

 containing a foreign substance deposited in narrow fissures 

 traversing it, which has hitherto escaped the notice of minera- 

 logists. It might be readily taken for Karpholite, which occurs 

 in the same kind of stellular disposition in fissures traversing 

 sandstone, but for its deeper tinge, which is an ochre-yellow, 

 often passing into a bright lemon-yellow. Sometimes small 

 filamentous crystals are grouped together in tufts ; sometimes 

 also the mineral is in the shape of a nearly-yellowish powder, 

 and then it much resembles the common ochrey-brown iron 

 ore. 



The specimens hitherto found have been so few, and the 

 substance itself so sparingly distributed through them, that an 

 exact statement of all its mineralogical characters yet remains 

 a desideratum. For the same reason, I cannot warrant the 

 exactness of the proportions among the ingredients, as stated 

 below. Some precursory experiments showed the existence 

 in the mineral of a considerable quantity of water, containing 

 a little acid, which turned out to be fluoric acid. From 100 

 parts of the mineral, I obtained, 



Silica, - - . 890 



Phosphoric acid, - 17.86 



Alumina, - - . lo>01 



Oxide of Iron, - 3 6 . 32 



Lime, - - . 0>15 



Loss by ignition, being water and fluoric acid, - 25.09 



Total, 99.19 



The quantity of phosphoric acid is greater than would be 

 required for combining with the alumina in the same propor- 

 tion as in wavellite, part of it is therefore evidently united to the 

 oxide of iron. Also the silica appears to be an essential ingre- 



" Abstract of a Paper read before the Bohemian Philosophical Socie- 

 ty, May 14, 182.5. 



