Brown Lead Ore of Zir.iapan. 



443 



speak with the respect due to so distinguished a philosopher, has 

 not, as the case now stands, been just to his friend Del Rio ; and 

 it is evident that more is felt on this subject, than has been ex- 

 pressed. Why did not Baron Humboldt publish the analysis^ 

 of which he received a copy from Del Rio, in 1804 ? Certainly 

 it was not given to him to suppress ; and he must have known 

 that the Spanish translation of Kersten was made for Mexico, 

 and not for Europe, where, perhaps, there are very few copies. 

 At any rate, it appears not to be common, since Mr. Johnston 

 has not seen it. We think the chemists of the present day, must 

 see that Del Rio was a very able analyst at that time, and had 

 Humboldt published it, or transmitted it to Europe, it could not, 

 as Del Rio states, have failed to excite the curiosity of those who 

 have paid particular attention to the combinations of chrome : 

 they would have examined it with attention, and the result 

 would have been, long ago, a universal acknowledgment of the 

 new metal, and of Del Rio, as the discoverer of it. We wish 

 that Baron Humboldt, when he stated in Paris, in February 

 1831, the principal facts in the history of this metal, as they 

 have been stated in the passages we have given from Berzelius 

 and Mr. Johnston, had also stated the reasons which had induced 

 Del Rio to suppose it not a new substance, but an impure 

 chrome. He had an excellent opportunity to do so, which, if he 

 had availed himself of, we should probably not have felt our- 

 selves called upon to dissuade European chemists from naming a 

 new metal, — not discovered by themselves, but by a Mexican,-— 

 after a ridiculous Scandinavian deity that never had any real ex- 

 istence. If the progress in knowledge is of the right kind, if there 

 is nothing deceptive in the extraordinary and very active demon- 

 strations in the pursuit of science in Europe, then those whom it 

 concerns to give proofs that they have learnt how to stand up vo- 

 luntarily for truth and justice, will be just, upon this occasion, to 

 America; and will, as we hope, and have before suggested, restore 

 Del Rio to his rights, by calling the metal discovered by him 

 Rionium; a name which, we think, Mr. Johnston will agree with 

 us, will be found quite as manageable as vanadium. 



We have every disposition to defer to the learned chemists 

 and mineralogists of Europe, and gratefully and eagerly receive 

 the numerous contributions which science is constantly owdng to 

 them. We believe that the tree of knowledge flourishes most. 



