358 On the Discovery of Fluoric Acid inthe Condrodile. 



would have decomposed the former,to combine with its flu- 

 oric acid. In support of this belief, Mr. Nuttall tells us, that 

 this mineral has been found at West-Point, in New- York, 

 and that it has been observed with idocrase and mica from 

 Vesuvius : he then says, " in these no trace of fluoric acid 

 has as yet been discovered.'' To obviate this seeming ob- 

 jection, I will ask Mr. Nuttall if he knows, that the constit- 

 uents of the specimens from the localities which he has ci- 

 ted, have been ascertained. As far as my knowledge, ex- 

 tends, no chemist has yet analyzed them, and I confidently 

 anticipate, that when they shall be examined they will all 

 prove to he. Jluo-silicates of magnesia. Analogy authorises 

 such anticipations. If we even admit, that no fluoric acid 

 has yet been discovered in the cases cited by Mr. Nuttall, 

 we are not thence to infer, that this acid does not exist 

 there, because we know that, that acid escaped the notice 

 of Berzelius, when he analyzed the condrodite, found in 

 Finland, and that 1 afterwards detected it in that mineral, 

 though no fluate of lime accompanied the specimen which 

 I examined.* 



In the next place Mr. Nuttall tells us, that the Sparta 

 mineral " was announced by Professor Cleaveland in his 

 first edition of Elements of Mineralogy under the name of 

 BruciteJ'^ I am surprised at this assertion and will thank 

 Mr. Nuttall, to point out the page in Cleaveland's j^rs/ edi- 

 tion, where the word " Brucite^^ is imprinted. I maintain 

 that it cannot be found in any part of that valuable work. 



The term " Brucite" was announced, for the first time, 

 in 1819 to be "a new species in mineralogy, discovered by 

 the late Dr. Bruce. We hope to publish in the next number 

 a description and analysis of it."t Notwithstanding the anx- 

 iety for an analysis of what some now pretend to be this 

 mineral, none was published prior to mine, in 1822,| al- 

 though eight numbers of Professor Silliman's Journal, ap- 

 peared subsequently to its being mentioned in that work. 

 I maintain, that Dr. Bruce considered the Sparta mineral, a 

 silico calcareous oxide of titanium. For my proofs, I refer 



* Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. V. p. 366. 



■Ubid, Vol. I. p. 439. 



.[.Ibid, Vol. V. p. 336. 



