194 Miscellanies. 



than any of his predecessors have been enabled to, and we wish him, 

 most heartily, health and strength as well as assistance in a .pecuniary 

 point of view, to enable him to accomplish so desirable an object. 



24. Epistilbite from Elba. — Among some specular iron ores from 

 Elba, Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, of New York, discovered the min- 

 eral heretofore called epistilbite, but now by Mohs and others con- 

 sidered as heulandite. 



Its color is white; lustre vitreous and pearly; fracture conchoidal; 

 nearly transparent ; structure entirely crystalline, but the crystals are 

 crowded and indistinct. By a strong magnifier they appeared gen- 

 erally hemitropic, but one was a rhombic prism. The crystals were 

 in a beautiful amygdaloid. 



Before the blow pipe, like the whole zeolite family, it melted into 

 a colorless, blebby glass. 



The mineral corresponds exactly with one described a few years 

 ago by Rose, whose localities were Iceland and Ferroe Islands ; and 

 as Elba is a new locality, not named in any work, Dr. F. requests 

 that it may be mentioned in the Am. Journal. 



Characteristic of the Epistilbite according to Rose. 



This mineral is specifically distinguished from the Stilbite and Heu- 

 landite ; crystals are rarely simple but generally hemitropic ; the 

 simple crystals constitute a rhombic prism of 135° 10' terminating 

 in a predominating acumunation of 109° 46' superposed straight on 

 the lateral angles, the lateral plane M, is common to the hemitropes, 

 but the others are in the reverse position ; the cleavage is very dis- 

 tinctly parallel to the obtuse lateral angles : the fracture is conchoi- 

 dal ; the lustre vitreous and pearly ; the color white ; transparent to 

 translucent at the corners. Hardness, =4.5; specific gravity is 

 =2.24; its chemical, constituents are 58.59 silica, 17.52 alumina, 

 7.56 lime, 1.78 soda, 14.48 water'. 



Before the blowpipe it acts like Stilbite and Heulandite. Localities 

 are Iceland and the Ferroe Islands in the cavities of an amygdaloid. 



Notices Translated and Extracted by Prof. Griscom. 

 NECROLOGy. 



Baron de Zach. — Science has just sustained a considerable loss 

 in the person of Francois Xavier, Baron de Zach, the actual dean 



