J. E. Whitfield — Natural Borates and Borosilicates. 281 



It may be interesting here to quote some of Mr. Spring's 

 results as obtained in vacuo* 

 Lead — Perfect fusion at 2,000 atm.; at 5,000 atm. it ran, as a 



liquid, out of all the cracks of the apparatus. 

 Bismuth — 6,000 atm. perfect fusion. 

 Tin — 4,000 atm. fusion. 

 Zinc — 5,000 atm. perfect fusion. 

 Antimony — 5,000 atm. beginning of fusion. 

 Sulphur prismatic — 5,000 atm. fusion to the octahedral form. 

 " plastic— 6,000 " ditto. 



" octahedral— 3,000 " . ditto, 



and so on through a long and varied list. 



Conclusion. — At this stage of the investigation it may be 

 premature to speak of conclusions, but I think there are here 

 at least a few straws which suggest in which direction we are to 

 look. To me it seems established that pressure alone cannot truly 

 liquify a solid, i. e. diminish its rigidity, consequently we should 

 scarcely expect chemical or mineralogical changes to be pro- 

 duced by pressure alone. Solids, and very rigid ones too, can 

 be made to flow and act in that respect as viscous liquids by 

 pressure alone, but it overcomes their rigidity without dimin- 

 ishing it. 



Future investigation may contradict or modify this conclu- 

 sion ; at present I believe it the only logical one to be drawn 

 from the facts at our disposal. f 



Art. XXXIII. — Analyses of some Natural Borates and Borosili- 

 cates ; by J. Edward Whitfield. 



In most of the published analyses of natural borates, boric 

 acid has been determined either by difference or by some of 

 the methods which have been shown to be inaccurate, and they 

 are ; therefore, subject to question as to the exact ratios and 

 formulas. A method for the direct estimation of boric acid;}: 

 having been devised in this laboratory by Dr. F. A. Gooch it 

 was thought advisable to repeat the analyses of a few of the 

 borates and verify, if possible, the given formulae or correct er- 

 rors caused by defective analytical methods. With this object 

 in view the following analyses were undertaken. The methods 

 employed differ in many cases from those used by the analysts 

 in the already published accounts of these minerals. In the 

 estimation of the ferrous iron the method employed was to 

 decompose the finely ground mineral with hydrofluoric and 



* W. Spring. Bull, de l'Acad. R. de Belg., II, xlix, 1880. 



f Since writing the above I have seen the article of E. H. Amagat [Comptes 

 Rendus, July, 1887, this Journal, September, 1887] giving an account of his 

 successful endeavors to do the opposite of what Mr. Spring did. He actually 

 solidified liquid C 2 C1 4 by pressure alone. % Am. Chem. Jour., ix, 23. 



