360 On the Discovery of Fluoric Acid in the Condroditc. 



ter, consider this mineral a Silica Calcareous Oxide of Ti- 

 tanium, and make a misstatement to Haiiy ? Can we sup- 

 pose that Dr. Langstaff would have withheld this informa- 

 tion until December, 1822, eleven years after he claims 

 to have made the discovery? Why did he' not add his 

 analysis* to the short notice of the Brucite, when it 

 was first announced in 1819? It was then named to 

 the world, without an indication of any one of its phys- 

 ical or chemical characters; not a word was even said 

 about the bed where nature had cast it ! These gentlemen 

 might with equal propriety claim any new substance con- 

 taining fluoric acid and magnesia. Notwithstanding all 

 their efforts, not one of them has cited a single experiment 

 which he made with this mineral ! When Mr. Nuttall first 

 claimed the discovery of the fluoric acid, in the Sparta min- 

 eral, he at the same time said, that his results were con- 

 firmed by Dr. Torrey's experiments.! Why did he then 

 neglect the more important one which he now urges in fa- 

 vor of Dr. Langstaff? he alone can account for the omis- 

 sion. In his late reply to me he says, that Dr. Tovvey,Jive 

 years ago, " also found the existence of fluoric acid, as 

 well as the other ingredients mentioned in the anal)'sis of 

 Dr. Langstaff."! From these statements it would seem, 

 that Dr. Langstaff, in 1811, made an analysis of the 

 mineral from Sparta, and that his results were confirm- 

 ed by Dr. Torrey in 1817; still the Brucite was introduced 

 to the scientific world in 1819, only with its name, without 

 character, and regardless of its birth-place! Now they even 

 dispute who discovered this mineral. Whilst Dr. Bruce liv- 

 ed, that merit was given to him; but since the decease of 

 that gentleman, his former pupil, Dr. Langstaff, claims the 

 discovery for himself! This might be considered of no 

 consequence to the question, did it not prove, how opinions 

 concerning facts, that we supposed long ago well establish- 

 ed, have been changed to answer temporary purposes. 



When the name " Brucite" first occurred in the Journal 

 of Science and Arts, I supposed it was intended to desig- 



*The annunciation of that mineral was made, not at the instance of Dr. 

 Langstaff, but by the request of Col. Gibbs ; the promised analysis was, 

 however, never forwarded. — Ed. 



tJournal of Arts and Science, Vol. V. p. 245. :}:Ibid, Vol. VI. p. 172. 



