Intelligence and Miscellanies, 169 



Some of Mr. Nuttall's " Observations and Geological Re- 

 marks on the minerals of Patterson and the Valley of Sparta, 

 in New-Jersey,'' excited my surprize ; and I regret, extreme- 

 ly, that the necessity of the case forces me into a controver- 

 sy; justice, however, demands that I should notice some 

 of the remarks of that gentleman. 



When speaking of the Condrodite* Mr. Nuttall says, 

 that it is according to an unpnhlished Analysis, which he 

 made in 1820, "a Silicate of Magnesia, with an accidental 

 portion of Fluoric acid and iron,"f thus leading us to be- 

 lieve, that he was the first, who detected Fluoric acid in that 

 mineral: the follow^ing facts will satisfy the reader, in how 

 far he has any claim to that discovery. On the 3d of April 

 1821, a communication, concerning the Condrodite, from 

 Mr. Nuttall w^as read before the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences, in Philadelphia; in that essay he made known the re- 

 sults, which he obtained from an analysis of that substance, 

 without enumerating Fluoric acid as one of its constituents ; 

 on the contrary, he satisfied himself that that acid did not 

 exist in the mineral in question. These are facts which 

 Mr. Nutall dares not venture to contradict, and they are 

 known to the members of the very respectable institution, 

 to which they were communicated. Why does Mr. Nut- 

 tall now pretend, that he detected Fluoric acid in the Con- 

 drodite in 1820, when in a paper read before the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences in 1821, he denies its existence, with- 

 out any allusion to a previous discovery.'' Mr. Nuttall's 

 Communication was referred to a committee ; on account 

 of its chemical imperfections, it was deemed unworthy of 

 a place in the transactions of the Academy ! 



In March>, 1822, I detected the Fluoric acid in the mine- 

 ral found at Sparta, New-Jersey ; this tact was a subject of 

 conversation amongst our Chemists, immediately after it 

 was substantiated ; it was announced to you, in a letter da- 

 ted 18th of April, 1822, and you noticed it in the first 

 number, volume 5, p. 203, of your Journal. On the 17th 

 of May last, my paper, on this subject, was read before the 



* The same mineral which I called " Jlfac/um/e," for reasons assigned 

 in the Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. V. p. 343. 



t Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. V. p. 245. 



Vol. VI.—No. I. 22 



