29 



manganese, which soils everything that comes into contact with 

 it, occurs frequently in the drusy cavities on Narsarsuk; as 

 no other mode of origin of this substance can be indicated 

 than its being due to the alteration of the rhodochrosite, this 

 carbonate must have formerly occurred in considerable quanti- 

 ties. 



9. Parisite. 



The mineral parisite was discovered about 65 years ago in 

 the emerald mines of the Muso valley, Colombia, South America, 

 by J. J. Paris, the proprietor of the mines at that time. It 

 was sent to Medici-Spada of Rome, who in 1835 gave it 

 the name Musi te from the locality. Afterwards, however, this 

 name was changed for parisite after the discoverer. The 

 mineral was first submitted to a closer investigation by R. W. 

 Bunsen M- The material he had to examine consisted of one 

 of the two pieces that had been sent to Medici-Spada. It 

 was a crystal broken at both ends , 1 1™"" in breadth and 

 Ld""" in thickness. On this material Bunsen made out, so 

 far as the means of the time allowed, the chemical constitution 

 as well as the crystallographical relations of the mineral and 

 found it to be holohedral hexagonal. 



The chemical composition was afterwards determined in 

 accordance with more modern methods by Dam our and De- 

 ville-). Des Cloizeaux^) came to the same conclusion as 

 Bunsen with regard to the crystallographical character of the 

 mineral; and he also found 13 new forms, more or less certain. 

 He also gives tha indices of optical refraction that had been 

 determined by Senarmont. Lastly Vrba^) has examined the 

 mineral. His material consisted of a rather large number of crystal 



') Annalen d. Chemie u. Pharmacie 1845, Vol. 53, p. 147. 



2) Comptes-Rendus 1864, Tom. 69, p. 270. 



3) Manuel de Min. 1874, T. II, p. 162. 



*) Zeitschr. f. Krystallographie 1889, Vol. 15, p. 210. 



