fi^ ANALYSIS OF JAftt. 



becf^use the identity of the tenacious jade and the oriental 

 jade did not appear to' me to be proved. 



AnoJ{/sis of the oriental jade^ jade mphntique of Haiiy. 

 j^nalysisof the For this analysis I employed amulets cut in form of a 

 T^espee'itaens crescent very little hollowed out. Their colour was a leek 

 debcribed. green, inclininc^ to gray : their specific gravity 2*057« Ac- 

 cording to Brisson the specific gravity of this jade is 2*966*; 

 and according to my father between 2'970 and 3*071. 



These amulets are interiorly dull, and merely shining in 

 small spots; they exhibit a dull fracture, vvith some fibres 

 here and there, either straight or curved ; they are semi- 

 transparent, and hard enough to scratch rock crystal, but 

 are scratched by the topaz and the emerald. Their tenacity 

 is very great: 1 could not pulverise them without greatly in- 

 juring an agate mortar, till 1 heated ihem red hot, and threw 

 them into water. In a red heat they lose all their transpa- 

 rency and about -^^-^ of their weight, their green colour 

 changes to a dark dirty gray, and they become fragile. 

 EKpo-ed to a ^' One of these amulets, of the weight of about 6 gram- 

 strong heat jn ^aQS [93 grains], was exposed whole for an hour in a phitina 

 fi£»ie. crucible to the most violent fire of a wind furnace. It there 



melted into a button, which was gray on the surface exposed 

 to the air, but white interiorly ; opake, beirtg merely a lit- 

 tle translucid at the edges ; of a greasy, unequal, and con- 

 fusedly lamellar fracture; and covered here and there with 

 smooth, shining, greasy crystals, the extremity of which 

 only was visible. This extremity exhibited very flat pyra^ 

 mids with four faces, the two larger of which terminated at 

 the summit of the pyramid in two obtuse angles, and the 

 two intermediate in acute angles. The upper surface of the 

 button, when inspected with a microscope, showed a mul- 

 titude of metallic globules of a gold colour, the nature of 

 which I could not ascertain.' The lower surface was covered 

 with a row of large blebs, that did not penetrate into the 

 substance, A small part of this button was fused before the 

 blowpipe, but without forming a glnss. One hundred parts 

 of the jade by weight lost by fusion 2;^ parts. 



• •" 111 Bdsson's Mineralogy it is from 2-950.2 to 2'9829. Tr. 



2. I 



