IS 14.] On the Composition of Arragonite. 251 



We were anxious to try the effect of the absolute alcohol of 

 Kiehter. Mr. Moser, in Vienna, to whom I stated what I had 

 done, gratified my wishes, and made the experiment with absolute 

 alcohol. With a solution of 9G grains of carbonate of lime and four 

 grains of carbonate of strontian, the alcohol left a residuum which 

 exhibited the properties of nitrate of strontian : but 100 grains of 

 Spanish arragonite treated in this way gave so little insoluble 

 matter, that it could not be distinguished upon a small filter. Mr. 

 Moser wished to prosecute these experiments. 



After my return, in January of this year, a copy of Bucholz's 

 Pocket Book for 1814 came to hand. Here (p. 32 — 4S,) he relates 

 liLs unsuccessful attempts to*htain strontian from arragonite, either 

 by the process of Stromeyer, or by one which he himself had con- 

 trived; namely, to decompose the dry residuum, obtained by evapo- 

 rating the solution to dryness, by means of a red beat, and to 

 separate the caustic strontian from the lime by means of its greater 

 solubility in water. When to all this I add that a celebrated French 

 analyst, to whom Stromeyer's discovery had been communicated bv 

 a German residing in Paris, was equally unable to succeed in 

 verifying it, I do not see any reason that I had to be surprised at my 

 own want of success. 



Yet the fact was so simple ; the experiments made by Stromeyer 

 depended upon properties sufficiently established; and they required 

 nothing but attention to ensure accuracy, I could not bring myself 

 to conclude that Stromeyer, of whose usual accuracy I was "well 

 aware, had repeated his experiments a great number of times with- 

 out determining the nature of the matter separated, notwithstanding 

 the facility with which that could be done. Various circumstances 

 occurred to me, which might have prevented my success, and ren- 

 dered a repetition of the experiments requisite, with all the precau- 

 tions suggested by our previous knowledge. I had the good fortune 

 at last to be successful, and to confirm the statement of Stromeyer. 

 At the meeting of the Mathematico-physical Class of the Royal 

 Bavarian Academy of Sciences, on the 28th of March, 1 gave an 

 account of these experiments, and laid before them the strontian 

 contained in arragonite, separated by Stromeyer's and Bucholz's 

 methods, and in combination with nitric acid ; first, in the state of 

 talsj and secondly, dissolved in weak alcohol ; exhibiting its 

 combustion with the well known red flame, and contrasting it with 

 the yellow flame yielded by nitrate of lime. 



i mall now state a few particulars respecting the experiments. — 

 After I bad prepared absolute alcohol, 1 in the first place made a 

 comparative experiment with a direct mixture. A solution of 884 

 graii rbonate of lime and 16 grains of carbonate of strontian 



in nitric acid was divided into two equal portions. The one half 

 Was evaporated t'> dryness in a small porcelain capsule, and th.e 



'mini being reduced to a fine powder in the same temperature, 



and the whole of the water which it contained being driven oil, it 

 was covered with a glass plate, and allowed to cool. It was then 



