1839.] 



On Chemical Tests. 



271 



" that it does contain lime, and is very fusible. T) \ Benza has called 

 " a mineral which is found in the Palicondah hills, an eurife, but which 

 " I find to be very fusible, and that il proves to be a silicate of alumi- 

 " na, with iron and an alkali in combination. The same writer has ap- 

 " plied the term silicious schist to a mineral, which Dr. Clark has called 

 u hornstone, which latter term I believe to be the most correct.* 



v. " The reasons why the chemical examination of minerals has 

 " been so little attended to in this part of India are probably , fust, that 

 " the apparatus required is supposed to be too bulky for convenient 

 " carriage ; secondly, that chemical tests are not easily procured in 

 " India, and thirdly that a chemical library is necessary. 



vi. " With regard to the first reason, if apparatus was required for 

 " experiments with gases, and for chemical purposes generally, it 

 " would doubtless be too bulky to be portable ; but as applicable to 

 " mineralogical purposes, (he whole apparatus required may be con- 

 " tained in a box 24 inches long, 12 wide, and 6 deep. A common 

 Ci country blacksmith's forge is always at hand as a furnace, and a 

 " rough analysis of a mineral may be made in an afternoon in a tent. 



vn. " With respect to tests, the tests and precipitants required in 

 " mineralogical analysis are few and simple ; they are easily made, 

 " and almost every bazar affords at a small cost the materials re- 

 <£ quired. 



vm. " The third difficulty appears to carry the most weight, for to 

 " acquire the knowledge necessary to conduct an analysis, many ex- 

 <{ pensive works are wanted, and continual reference from one to 

 " another is necessary to glean and arrange the information required. 

 " Rose, is the best work on the subject, but it is perplexing to a begin- 

 " ner, who is bewildered with a multiplicity of tests, and the elaborate 

 <f detail of precipitation and separation with which the work is filled. 

 " Such information is indeed of the greatest value, but to the inex- 

 4< perienced analyst, who is unable to discriminate between what 

 " it is necessary to attend to, and what may be neglected, it seems like 

 " a labyrinth, only to bewilder and confuse; and he soon finds that 

 " he wants something simpler." That want the following pages may 

 perhaps in some degree supply. 



ix. The sources of information that I have consulted have been the 

 best I could obtain, but they have been almost limited to my own li- 

 brary, which has furnished me less copiously than I could have wished. 

 This paper therefore I look upon only as a first imperfect 'at- 

 tempt to form a work, which under abler hands, with some, additions, 

 would be found extremely useful to all who are not professed chcm/sls, 



* See Note at the end of this Number.— Editor. 



