WRITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 29 



Compound salt, of carbonate of zinc and hydrate 



of zinc 



Water in the state of moisture 

 Carbonate of lime and carbonate of lead 



1000.0 



It may be thought some corroboration of the system here 

 offered, that, if we admit the proportions which it indicates, 

 the remote elements of this ore, while they are regular parts 

 of their immediate products, by whose subsequent union 

 this ore is engendered, are also regular fractions of the ore 

 itself: thus, 



The carbonic acid = -/$ 



The water = -g 9 ^ 



The calx of zinc = f 



Hereby displaying that sort of regularity, in every point 

 of view of the object, w y hich so wonderfully characterises 

 the works of nature, when beheld in their true light. 



If this calamine does consist of carbonate of zinc and 

 hydrate of zinc, in the regular proportions above supposed, 

 little doubt can exist of its being a true chemical combina- 

 tion of these two matters, and not merely a mechanical 

 mixture of them in a pulverulent state ; and, if so, we may 

 indulge the hope of some day meeting with this ore in 

 regular crystals. 



If the theory here advanced has any foundation in truth 

 the discovery will introduce a degree of rigorous accuracy 

 and certainty into chemistry, of which this science was 

 thought to be ever incapable, by enabling the chemist, like 

 the geometrician, to rectify by calculation the unavoidable 

 errors of his manual operations, and by authorising him to 

 eliminate from the essential elements of a compound, those 

 products of its analysis whose quantity cannot be reduced 

 to any admissible proportion. 



A certain knowledge of the exact proportions of the 

 constituent principles of bodies, may likewise open to our 

 view harmonious analogies between the constitutions of 



