OF THE ASBESTINE EARTH. i5 3 



ing, and, when cooling, concretes into a filamen- 

 tous mafs; but, if this is melted much longer, 

 it becomes a grccnifli glafs, cafily penetrating 

 the crucible. 



EXP. 2. When the extremity of a thread is 

 expofed to the flame of the blow-pipe, it melts 

 into an opaque globule, that grows dark colour- 

 ed, if the ilamc continues to adl upon it. It 

 diflblvcs with borax and the microcofmic fait, 

 and eficrvcfces with the mineral alkali. 



Though reduced to fo fine a powder that it 

 cannot be mechanically further divided, yet it 

 is but little folublc in any mcnitrua. 



EXP. 3. A hundred docimafUc pounds were 

 gently boiled in ten times the weight of aqua, 

 rcgia, until a fmall quantity only of the liquor 

 remained. The menftruum diflblved no more 

 than 12, and the refiduum had undergone no 

 change. The folution being precipitated by 

 fixed alkali, yielded an earth iimilar to the terra 

 pondorofa, fome calcareous earth, and the reft 

 magnefia. 



EXP. 4. An hundred pounds, treated in the 

 fame way, with eight hundred of concentrated 

 vitriolic acid, four only were diflblved, and 

 which appeared to be calcareous earth and mag- 

 nefia. 



M 4 EXF. 



