Intelligence and Miscellanies. 195 



potash, and heated to redness for half an hour in a silver 

 crucible. The mineral entered into perfect fusion, and the 

 mass assumed an intense green color. By the atlusion of 

 warm water, it was transferred to a wedgewood capsule, 

 and on the addition of nitric acid, a clear yellowish solution 

 was obtained. 



12. The nitric solution (II.) was evaporated to perfect 

 dryness, in order to decompose the nitrate of iron and sepa- 

 rate the silex. Warm water was added to the residue, and 

 a solution of a yellow color was formed, leaving behind the 

 oxide of iron and silex. 



13. To the yellow solution (12.) was added proto-nitrate 

 of mercury, which occasioned an orange colored precipi- 

 tate : this when dried and heated assumed a grass green 

 tinge, and communicated to borax while in a state of fusion 

 a deep green color, but in cooling, it faded to a pale yellow. 



The conclusions which these trials enable us to form, with 

 regard to the composition of the mineral under examination, 

 appear to be the following. No. 1. proves the existence of 

 sulphur ; though with regard to this ingredient, subsequent 

 trials, in which I repeated this experiment upon larger quan- 

 tities of the mineral, without obtaining any very appreciable 

 precipitate, satisfied me that it was wholly due to mmute parti- 

 cles of the proto-sulphuret of iron (a substance hereafter to be 

 noticed) adhering to the surfaces of the globular masses of 

 our mineral. No.'s 2. and 8. prove the absence of nickel, 

 and 4. that of lime. No. 5. exhibits the presence of an al- 

 kali, which 6. and 7. prove to be soda. No. 8. shows the 

 existence of magnesia; 9. and 10. the absence of manga- 

 nese and alumine : and 13. the presence of chrome. Be- 

 sides the above mentioned ingredients, silex and oxide of 

 iron are to be added, whose existence in a large proportion 

 became sufficiently obvious during these trials. 



I went through the process of analysis by fluoric acid, in- 

 vented by Berzelius, with the hope of ascertaining the pro- 

 portion of the soda, adopting the expedient of Rose for the 

 separation of the sulphates of magnesia and soda,* but as I 

 was operating upon 10 grs. only of the mineral, the quantity 

 of carbonate of soda was too trifling to enable me to ascer- 

 tain its weight with precision. 



V 

 ' Ann. de Chim. t.^, p. 334. 



