26 WEITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Chemistry is yet so new a science, what we know of it 

 bears so small a proportion to what we are ignorant of, our 

 knowledge in every department of it is so incomplete, so 

 broken, consisting so entirely of isolated points thinly scat- 

 tered like lurid specks on a vast field of darkness, that no 

 researches can be undertaken without producing some facts, 

 leading to some consequences, which extend beyond the 

 boundaries of their immediate object. 



1. The foregoing experiments throw light on the propor- 

 tions in which its elements exist in vitriol of zinc. 23.0 

 grs. of the Mendip Hill calamine, produced 29.8 grs. of arid 

 vitriol of zinc. These 23.0 grs. of calamine contained 14.9 

 grs. of calx of zinc; hence, this metallic salt, in an arid 

 state, consists of exactly equal parts of calx of zinc and vitri- 

 olic acid. 



This inference is corroborated by the results of the other 

 experiments : 68.0 grs. of the Bleyberg calamine, contain- 

 ing 48.6 grs. of calx of zinc, yielded 96.7 grs. of arid vitriol 

 of zinc; and, in another trial, 20.0 grs. of this ore, contain- 

 ing 14.2 grs. of calx of zinc, produced 28.7 grs. of arid 

 vitriol of zinc. The mean of these two cases, is 62.7 grs. 

 of arid vitriol of zinc, from 31.4 grs. of calx of zinc. 



In the experiment with the crystals of carbonate of zinc 

 from Derbyshire, 14.35 grs. of calx of zinc furnished indeed 

 only 26.8 grs. of arid vitriol of zinc ; a deficiency of about 

 j-jj-g-, occasioned probably by some small inaccuracy of ma- 

 nipulation. 



2. When the simplicity found in all those parts of nature 

 which are sufficiently known to discover it is considered, it 

 appears improbable that the proximate constituent parts of 

 bodies should be united in them, in the very remote rela- 

 tions to each other in which analyses generally indicate 

 them ; and, an attention to the subject has led me to the 

 opinion that such is in fact not the case, but that, on the 

 contrary, they are universally, as appears here with respect 



