| _ Mineralogy and Geology. 431 
with acicular crystallizations ; but after Mr. Brush’s discovery of phos- 
phoric acid, the writer found by means of a glass that the acicular prisms 
were in fact hexagonal prisms of apatite. Other large prisms were also 
found in some specimens. The acicular mesotype-like mineral is asso- 
‘ ciated with another of a mealy character and in part sub-lamellar, which 
may be a zeolite as observed by Whitney 
Ce 
9. The Lagoons of Tuscany, (Bull. Soc. Geol. de France, Dec., 1848, 
47.)—The Tuscan Lagoons are, properly speaking, natural depres- 
sion 
8 
s of the soil ordinarily filled with water from which hot vapors are 
ted. They are situated within a space of ten or twelve miles, lying 
een 28° 27’ and 28° 40’ of longitude, and between 48° 10’ and 
‘overed by analysis, that they contained boracic acid. 
ty, followed by farther explorations, has bestowed upon the la- 
bons an unrivalled industrial importance, and has brought into the 
tion. Under the Grand Duke Leopold Ist, the chemist Heefer 
This dis- 
| who fell into the scalding baths,—the disruptions of the ground occasion- 
ed by the appearance of new Soffiont,—and above all the superstitious 
terror with regard to them, had made the people consider the lagoons 
aS a scourge from which they sought deliverance by public prayers ; 
tiches than the mines of Peru, or of Mexico, and certainly more relia- 
ble. After the discovery of Hofer, Paul Mascagni, a noted chemist, 
i t ' 
issue from these lakes keep their waters constantly at a boiling te pe- 
“ 2 
of the highest lake, they draw off the waters into the second lake to 
