30 WRITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 



related objects, general laws, &c., which at present totally 

 escape us. In short, if it is founded in truth, its enabling 

 the application of mathematics to chemistry, cannot but be 

 productive of material results.* 



3. By the application of the foregoing theory to the 

 experiments on the electrical calamine, its elements will 

 appear to be, 



Quartz - - - i 



Calx of zinc - f 



A small quantity of the calamine having escaped the action 



of the vitriolic acid, and remained undecomposed, will 



account for the slight excess in the weight of the quartz. 



4. The exhalation of these calamities at the blowpipe, and 

 the flowers which they diffuse round them on the coal, are 

 probably not to be attributed to a direct volatilization of 

 them. It is more probable that they are the consequences of 

 the disoxidation of the zinc calx, by the coal and the 

 inflammable matter of the flame, its sublimation in a metal- 

 lic state, and instantaneous recalcination. And this alter- 

 nate reduction and combustion, may explain the peculiar 

 phosphoric appearance exhibited by calces of zinc at the 

 blowpipe. 



The apparent sublimation of the common flowers of zinc 

 at the instant of their production, though totally unsublim- 

 able afterwards, is certainly likewise but a deceptions 

 appearance. The reguline zinc, vaporized by the heat, rises 

 from the crucible as a metallic gas, and is, while in this 

 state, converted to a calx. The flame which attends the 

 process is a proof of it; for flame is a mass of vapour, 

 ignited by the production of fire within itself. The fibrous 

 form of the flowers of zinc, is owing to a crystallization of 

 the calx while in mechanical suspension in the air, like that 

 which takes place with camphor, when, after having been 

 sometime inflamed, it is blown out. 



A moment's reflection must evince, how injudicious is the 



* It may be proper to say, that the experiments have been stated precisely 

 as they turned out, and have not been in the least degree bent to the system. 



