SULPHtJRET OF LEAD, COPPER, AND ANTIMONY. 225 



bitumen, as this burns in the same manner as the preceding, 

 its fragments exhibit no appearance of flexibility, and ma- 

 ceration in water does not in any respect alter their consis- 

 tencj r . 



Its texture admits of no variety, being at the same time Varieties. 

 compact and foliaceous: but it has two varieties of colour, 

 greenish gray, and yellowish gray. 



This mineral is found at Melilli, near Syracuse. It forms Where found; 

 a stratum of no great thickness, extended between beds of 

 secondary limestone. 



It appears, th'it attempts have been made to work it Out, 

 but they have not been pursued. This is Certain, that the 

 combustible fossil it contains has long been known in the 

 country. The inhabitants give it different names, some Name. 

 calling it the bituminous foliaceous earth of Melilli, others 

 devil's dung. Both these names being equally improper, I 

 have thought it necessary to frame one more suitable to mi- 

 neralogical nomenclature. That of dusodde, which from 

 its Greek root implies fetid, was naturally suggested by one 

 of the most remarkable properties of this new kind of bi-* 

 tumen, that of diffusing a detestable smell when burned. 



XII. 



Memoir on the triple Sulphuret of Lead, Copper, and Anti- 

 mony, or Endellion. By M. le Comte de Bournon, 

 F. R. Sf L. 5.* 



JL HIS memoir was written chiefly as an answer to that Former me- 

 printed in the first part of the Philosophical Transactions J^jJSj^ 

 for 1808 f, in which Mr. Smithson its author, critici- by Mr. Smiirn 

 ses with as little justice as decency a former memoir of son * 



* Translated from the original, communicated by the author, and re- 

 vised by him. 

 t See Journal, vol. XX, p. 332. 



Vol. XXIV—Nov. 1809. Q mine 



