On the Distribution of Manganese. oe { 
Apply it then to instruments of perfect construction, of high 
optical power, with equal advantages of high mechanical perfec- 
tion, with a full ten wire diaphragm, interlock, the observations 
until the power of the micrometer is fully and positively deter- 
mined, and then who will dare to anticipate the results which 
may be reached by such a combination of science and mechanical 
wer. Motions which have hitherto required centuries for their 
detection and measurement, variations. in the proper motions of 
the fixed stars, which have only been suspected, parallax annual 
and systematic, even the positions of the double stars themselves, 
may not all these, to say nothing of aberration, nutation, preces= 
_ sion, fall fully within the range of rapid and positive research. 
~ With the delicate and powerful machinery for determining 
R. A., on which no less than twenty-five wires are successfully 
employed, combined with this no less powerful means of meas- 
uring difference of declination, may we not hope that even in the 
lifetime of a single observer some of the dark problems of the 
heavens which now defy our utmost efforts, may be resolved and 
yield up their long and deeply concealed mysteries. My only 
regret is that I do not possess the: means to execute an immedi 
application of these new methods to the resolution of these hig 
and profound problems. onl 
% 
Heer Ary 
+ 
Arr. If —On the Distribution of Manganese ; on the Eristence 
of Organic Matter in Stalactites forming Crystallized and 
Amorphous Crenate of Lime ; and on the Origin of Stratifi- 
- eation; by Davin A. Wetts, Cambridge, Mass, _— 
I.’ On the Distribution of Manganese. 
THE occurrence of pebbles and water-worn stones in many of 
the streams and water-courses of New England, which. have 
their origin among, and run over, igneous and metamorphic rocks, 
is by no means uncommon, and has doubtless attracted the atten- 
tion of every observer. When the bed of a stream in which 
tation of the black oxyd of manganese, and occurs independently 
_ on almost every variety of stone. : sips 
In the Edinburgh new Philosophical Journal. for July, 1851, 
