i/o Proceedings. 



Ordinary Meeting, March 4th, 1890. 



Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. SEMMONS (introduced by Dr. Burghardt) exhibited 

 specimens of sandstone of triassic formation from the North 

 of Spain ; the stone contained both the blue and the green 

 carbonate of copper, and apparently remains of plants, one 

 of which had some of the appearances of an Equisetum. 

 The interest of the communication lay in the rarity of plant 

 remains in the triassic formation. The impressions had a 

 black appearance, and were found to contain oxide of copper. 



Dr. SCHUNCK called attention to Dr. Gerhard Kruss's 

 alleged discovery that commercial nickel contains an admix- 

 ture of 2 per cent of a foreign substance, from which it must 

 be inferred that the nickel hitherto regarded as a pure metal 

 is an alloy, and that pure nickel resembles more closely 

 silver in appearance. A discussion ensued, in which Mr. C. 

 O'Neill, Dr. Bottomley, Mr. C. N. Adams, and Dr. 

 Burghardt took part. Dr. Burghardt stated that his 

 experiments did not lead him to consider nickel as an 

 alloy, and that the unknown mineral would seem to possess 

 chemical properties very similar to those of nickel. He 

 suggested that commercial nickel from New Caledonia did 

 not give the same analysis as nickel from the older sources, 

 and appeared now to be common in the market. In 

 summing up the discussion, Dr. SCHUNCK said that he did 

 not agree with the opinion expressed that it was improbable 

 that such an impurity should have been so long overlooked 

 by chemists. 



Dr. Burghardt read a paper on " Some applications 

 of Caustic Soda or Potash and Carbon in the qualitative and 

 quantitative Analysis of Minerals," and showed the method 

 practically before the members as applied to tin ore from 

 Cornwall, wolframite or tungstate of iron, and chrome iron 

 ore. The method appeared to be an easy one, only a few 

 minutes being occupied in each experiment, and it seemed to 

 give very complete reactions with satisfactory results. 



