1870.] Mineralogy. 281 



Not only does it bespeak the absence of water and of oxygen ; but 

 having regard to the conditions needful for the production of this 

 particular compound, the author thinks himself justified in pointing 

 to the presence of some reducing agent, which operated during the 

 formation of the constituents of the stone — such an agent as would 

 be furnished by Graham's meteoric hydrogen. 



Oldhamite forms spherules of a chestnut-brown colour, having a 

 specific gravity of 2*58, and presenting, a cubic cleavage. In some 

 of these spherules there are minute gold-coloured octohedral crystals, 

 which contain calcium, sulphur, and a rare metal — probably tita- 

 nium. As a befitting comphment to the gentleman who forwarded 

 the Busti meteorite to this country, Maskelyne describes this second 

 mineral under the name of Osbornite. 



Dr. Giovanni Striiver's studies in Italian mineralogy have lately 

 been directed to the examination of the iron-pyrites of Piedmont 

 and of Elba.* In the collection of the Engineering School of 

 Turin, and of the University Museum in the same city, nearly 6000 

 specimens of Italian pyrites are to be found. The author has thus 

 had ample materials for study, and that he has made good use of 

 his opportunities is clear from his exhaustive monograph on the 

 subject. He describes the various simple forms and combinations 

 in which the Italian mineral occurs, including many newly-observed 

 forms. It is notable that in 5603 specimens only three distinct 

 simple forms were found. The memoir is illustrated by a series of 

 fourteen plates. 



Some few years ago, Herr Stein described a mineral under the 

 name of Staff elite. It had the extraordinary composition of a hydrous 

 phosphate and carbonate of lime, with a fluoride of calcium and 

 traces of iodine. It occurred usually as a greenish incrustation, but 

 was said to be also found in rhombohedral crystals. A similar sub- 

 stance has been met with in certain phosphorite workings near 

 Offheim, in Nassau ; and upon this crust of so-called staffelite were 

 some fine clear crystals of apatite. Dr. Kosmann publishes an 

 analysis of this apatite,! and assigns to it the formula : 5 (3 Ca O. 

 P 5 ) -f- 2 Ca Fl. It is notable for containing as large a percent- 

 age as 452 of fluorine, and for the presence of magnesia. The 

 author believes that staffelite is nothing more than an impure 

 form of apatite rapidly deposited and contaminated with the salts 

 of the mother-liquor from which it was evaporated. Dr. Kosmann 

 also describes a new mineral under the name of Lime Wavellite, the 

 composition of which is sufficiently indicated by its name. 



In the Bergmannstroost mine at Altenberg in Silesia certain 

 needle-like crystals are found penetrating brown-spar. Under the 



* ' Stutlii sulla Miueralogia Italiana. Pirite del Piemonte e dell' Elba.' 

 Torino, 1869. 



f ' Zeitschrift d. deutschen geolog. Gesellschaft,' Bd. xxi., Heft 4, p. 795. 



