(( 



354 Mr. Children's Summary/ View of [May, 



" which may be regarded as merely in the state of mixture ; " 

 and of which M. Beudant cannot make any thing further. He 

 continues, 



" Thus we see that the garnet in question contains 



Melanite garnet 24-83 



Calcareous garnet 56'51 



Aluminous and magnesian garnet .... 4*00 

 JVIanganesian and magnesian garnet . . 7'00 



Trioxide of manganese (mixed) '2'38 



Magnesia (mixed) 3*47 



98-19 



This is taking a peep into Nature's workshop with a ven- 

 geance, and it is really a pity that all the elements of the analy- 

 sis could not be worked up ; quite provoking that Nature should 

 have employed nearly six per cent, of matter in her way of mak- 

 inof a garnet, more than M. Beudant wanted for his, and still more 

 so that all the elements should be in exact definite proportion in 

 the first compound, and not in the last, so ingeniously dished up 

 from the several ingredients of melanite, grossular, &c. &c. into 

 this garnet olio ! Other similar examples are given from the 

 analyses of axinite and amphibole, but the reader will probably 

 think the preceding quite sufficient. 



M. Beudant concludes the chapter by observing, that the 

 above method of discussing the analyses of minerals is the only 

 way to form a clear idea of their composition — every other mode 

 of looking at them, he says, "leads merely to vague ideas, or 

 rather leads to nothing at all. The common plan of giving the 

 weights of the insulated ingredients generally presents only a 

 parcel of incoherences, and it is this bad method that has so 

 long prevented the immediate application of chemical researches 

 to mineralogy, by concealing all the advantages that may be 

 derived from them." We strongly suspect we shall adhere to 

 the bad method, notwithstanding. 



With respect to the term isomorphons, M. Beudant very pro- 

 peily remarks, that it cannot be received in a rigorous sense, and 

 that it frequently merely indicates a very strong analogy, the 

 forms of substances, said to be isomorphons, differing only very 

 slightly in the measurements of their corresponding angles. 



The late M. Haliy was not a convert to the new views adopted 

 by MM. Mitscherhch and Berzelius. After stating their ideas 

 respecting pyroxene, he says,* " they were not led to these 

 conclusions by direct observations on the different sihcates con- 

 tained in the pyroxenes, but deduced them from observations 

 made bv M. Mitscherlich on different substances obtained sepa- 



• Trsite de Mineralogie, Second Edition, p.39. 



