170 Intelligence and Miscellanies, 



American Philosophical Society, the results of my experi- 

 ments were noted in their minutes, and to these Mr. Nuttall 

 being a member of that Society, had free access. From 

 the sources abovementioned, he could, in 1822, correct the 

 results, which he had laid before the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences in 1821, and thus pretend, that he anticipated me 

 as early as 1820. He pretends that the Fluoric acid, in 

 the Condrodite, is accidental, without informing us of the 

 quantity, or of the method which he followed to detect it. 

 Why did he neglect to publish his analysis in detail? The 

 subject was worthy of such notice, more especially as the 

 Fluoric acid, in this mineral, had escaped the sagacity of the 

 celebrated Berzelius. To every Chemist, the error of Mr. 

 XuttalVs statement must be evident, because the 4.086 per 

 100 of Fluoric acid, which 1 obtained from this mineral, must 

 be an essential, and not an accidental constituent, otherwise 

 we cannot account for the saturation of the bases, which 

 enter into its composition. It was the want of the knowl- 

 edge of the presence of this acid, that forced Professor 

 Berzelius, to resort to a peculiar formula, (formvle particu- 

 liere) founded on the principles of definite proportions, 

 to represent the condrodite, in his system of Mineralogy, 

 as SiHcate of Magnesia.* 



Mr. Nuttall was mistaken when he told us that "Haiiy 

 referred the Condrodite to the peridot.! On the contrary, 

 the celebrated crystallographer remarks, that although, 

 from an analysis of this mineral, made by Berzelius, the 

 results were similar to those afforded by the peridot, ^Aey 

 cannot be referred to the same species. The following are 

 the words that Haiiy employs, when he refers to the analy- 

 sis of Berzehus. "Onenavait meme fait I'analyse, dont 

 le resultat se rapprochait beaucoup de celui que donne le 

 peridot. Mais ayant entrepris dexaminer la structure de 

 ces cristaux, je trouvai que leur division mecanique con- 

 duisait a un prisme rectangulaire a base oblique, ce qui les 

 rendait incompaiihles dans une meme espece, avec le peridot 

 qui a pour forme primitive \m prisme droit.''^\ 



* Annales des Mine?, Tome 6, p. 528. 



t Jouraal of Science and Arts, Vol. 5, p. 245. * 



X Annales des Mines, Tome 6, p. 528- 



