Geology and Mineralogy. 393 
Aug. 7, 1844, The Swedish chemist reported it to the Stockholm 
Academy (CEfversigt af kongl. Vet. Akad. Férh., (1844) i, 144,) 
and reprinted his report in his well-known “ Jahresbericht tiber 
die Fortschritte der Chemie,” (1845) xxv, 20. Translated the report 
reads as follows:—“ Bunsen states, that the electric discharge 
between copper poles is blue, and that it shows the Fraunhofer 
lines beautifully, when observed by help of a tube through a 
prism en other metals are employed, these lines are exhib- 
ited very differently and in marvellous variety. By throwing the 
Image on a white wall by means of a camera obscura, the phe- 
nomena can be followed with the greatest exactness.” 
There is certainly no lack of clearness in this description, yet 
every one whom the subject interests will be glad to read the 
ey ae 
a and true Fraunhofer lines. This is sufficient to show that, in the 
observations made at that time, I had as little idea as any one 
else at the period, of the fundamental constancy of the lines of 
glowing gases, to say nothing of any suspicion of the transforma- 
tion of bright lines into dark ones.” 
It is superfluous to predict that others will ascribe to this 
research a very different degree of importance from that indicated 
by the investigator who made i 
II. Grotocy AND MINERALOGY. 
kept by Mr. Arthur Hale, aid to J. F. Carll, 
ist in the Geological Survey, is the longest de- 
