262 M. Beudant on the Connexion between [April, 



their wants. I think I have also proved that as weeds will 

 resuscitate, it is the excess of bad management to put them into 

 the ground again ; and as to trees and roots, although they may 

 make manure for the next generation, it is too slow a process for 

 us to expect to derive any advantage from it. 



The question of what is the life of a plant, is more difficult to 

 answer. Hunter suggested that the life of an animal might be 

 " a subtile and mobile vapour of the electric kind ; " and may 

 not this be of the nature of caloric ? I have merely shown how 

 the vegetable dies ; further I am not competent to judge, espe- 

 cially in so difficult a question. But there appears a great deal 

 of analogy between the death of the more perfect animals, and 

 vegetables, and still more between insects and vegetables ; and 

 I still hope that further observations and experiments on the 

 death of plants in my troughs will enable me to penetrate further 

 into this subject. I feel it impossible not to meditate on this 

 topic, and am anxious to obtain the most correct ideas respect- 

 ing it. An examination into the form of plants has engrossed 

 more than 16 years of my life ; and the first cause of their exist- 

 ence must, of course, be a matter of peculiar interest to me. 

 I am, Gentlemen, your obliged humble servant, 



Agnes Ibbetson. 



Article II L 



An Abstract of an Inquiry into the relative Importance of the 

 Crystalline Form and Chemical Composition in determining 

 the Species of Mineral Bodies. By F. S. Beudant. 



(From the Annales des Mines.) 



Considerable disputes have subsisted, upwards of thirty 

 years, among mineralogists and chemists, concerning the prin- 

 ciple of classification applicable to mineral bodies. Some mine- 

 ralogists have adopted the results of chemical analysis, others 

 the crystallographical characters, and others again have united 

 both these in their systems* But in thus combining into one 

 system the crystalline form with the chemical composition, a 

 considerable difficulty has arisen from the attempt to decide 

 which of the two characters ought to be regarded as the most 

 essential in the determination of a mineral species. 



It is with a view to solve this difficulty that the author has 

 undertaken the present inquiry. 



* The illustrious Professor of Freyberg has not founded his classification on 

 external characters alone. It is obvious that he requires the a«i>tance of chemical 

 analysis in the construction of specific characters,. 



