238 Dr. Hare’s Reply to Prof. Vanuxem. 
Wea 
Aeat. XXI.—Remarks resnecting Mr. Vanuxem’s Memoir 
on a fused product, erroneously identified with the fused 
Carbon of Professor Silliman; with some additional 
facts and observations. By Prof. Ropert Hare. i 
Proressor Silliman about two years ago, published an 
account of some phenomena observed during the ignition 
of pieces of charcoal by a galvanic deflagrator, the poles of 
which they had been severally employed to terminate. 
On the charcoal attached to the positive pole, a projection 
was observed to ensue—in the other, a corresponding con- 
cavity. ‘The projection he supposed to consist of carbon, 
fused, volatilized and transferred from the charcoal of the 
opposite pole, where the concavity was discovered. 
Ina late number of the Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Mr. Lardner Vanuxem 
communicates his observations on a supposed specimen of 
fused charcoal sent to Professor Cooper by Dr. Macneven 
of New York, which appears to have been iron—and the 
author appears to have received, and evidently intends to 
convey, the impression, that the substances considered as 
fused or volatilized carbon by Professor Silliman, must have 
been similarly constituted. 
Mr. Vanuxem, speaking of the mass which he has exam- 
ined, informsus, that—— 
‘It consisted of one large and one small globule, connec- 
ted together by a thread, or thin bar of the same material, 
and resembled a double headed shot.” 
And again he says :— 
“It was then put into an agate mortar, pressed and 
struck with considerable force-—finding it yielded without 
breaking, and observing that it received a polish, it was ex- 
amined, and found to resemble iron. ‘Toconfirm the analo- 
gy, it was next tried witha file, which acted upon it as it 
would on soft stee] or iron—after this it was subjected to a 
magnet, to which it readily attached itself—and lastly, with 
a hammer: by its great malleability, conjoined with the 
characters just mentioned, it proved its identity with iron.” 
He moreover states, that the substance in question was 
attacked by nitric acid, and afterwards was chiefly taken up 
