AND RESEARCHES OF JAMES SMITHSON. 135 



phy, is a short paper On the discovery of chloride of potassium 

 in the earth. 



This discovery resulted from an examination of a red 

 feruginous mass, containing veins of white crystalline mat- 

 ter, part of a block said to have been thrown from Vesu- 

 vius. 



It was a spongy lava, with sparse crystals of augite, pyr- 

 oxene, or hornblende, the white crystalline matter was 

 wholly soluble in water, and when laid on silver with 

 sulphate of copper, gave an intense black stain. 



The potash was detected by chloride of platinum and by 

 tartaric acid. 



When decomposed by nitric acid, nitrate of potassa was 

 the solid obtained by crystallization. 



19. At the 30th page of the same volume (xxii.) of the 

 Annals of Philosophy, is a short tract "On the improved 

 method of making coffee." 



The object is to preserve the aroma of the coffee during 

 the coction, which Mr. Smithson effected in a phial closed 

 with a cork, left loose at first, to allow the escape of air, 

 and afterwards closed tight, and kept immersed in boiling 

 water until the process was concluded. It may, when 

 cooled, be filtered, without losing the aroma, and then re- 

 turned to the close vessel to be re-heated. 



" In all cases means of economy tend to augment and diffuse comfort and 

 happines?. They bring within the reach of the many, what wasteful pro- 

 ceeding conQnes to the few. By diminishing expencliture on one article, 

 they allow of some other enjoyment which was before unattainable. A 

 reduction in quantity permits an indulgence in superior quality. In the 

 present instance the importance of economy is particularly great, since it 

 is applied to matters of high price, which constitute one of the daily meals 

 of a large portion of the population of the earth. 



" That in cookery also, the power of subjecting for an indefinite dura- 

 tion, to a boiling heat, without the slightest dependiture of volatile matter 

 will admit of a beneficial application, is unquestionable." 



20. In the same volume of the Annals, (xxii.,) p. 412, is 

 a paper, by Mr. Smithson, Oh a method of fixing particles upon 

 the sapparCy (cyanite,) dated October 24, 1823. 



He refers to the uncertainty of physical qualities to deter- 

 mine the species of minerals. Werner was unable, by this 

 means, to discover the identity of the jargon, (zircon,) and 

 the hyacinth; of the corundum and the sapphire; of his 

 apatite and his spargelstein, and "while he tlms parted be- 

 ings from themselves, as it were, he forced others together, 

 which had nothing in common." 



Hence, Smithson infers the necessity of chemical analy- 

 sis; and, to avoid waste, the practice of analyzing on a 

 very small scale. 



