Chap. XL. 1 
VIZAGAPATAM DISTRICT. 
1043 
Scott remarks that the analysis of the Vizianagram ore agrees most 
nearly with that of marcellin from St. Marcel in Piedmont, investi- 
gated by Damour, who considered the, mineral to be a mixture of 
braunite and silicate of MnO ; but Rammelsberg remarked that if it 
possess a distinct crystalline form, as it appears to do, it cannot be a 
mixture ; and he suggests that the crystals may be braunite and that 
the analysis has been made with a specimen containing impurities. 
Combined silica is, however, now considered to form an essential part of 
the formula of braunite , and the above analyses conform very roughly 
to the formula 7Mn20.,. 2Mn2Si03. 
In 1855, E. Balfour published a letter that had been sent to him 
in 1850 by Mr. F. H. Crozier.i 
Mr. Croziet forwarded with this letter a black mineral that he 
supposed was antimony-ore, as the natives said it was surma. It was 
to be found in some quantity a few miles to the south of Cheepooroo- 
pully (ChipurupaUi).^ He says : — 
' When at Bimlipatam some raonthp since 1 met an encampment of Mundoola- 
wanloo or itinerent sellers of medicines on route from the northward to Madras. 
On examining the articles they had for sale in the prepared and original state, 
I found some of the ore correspond in appearance uith that we had obtained 
from Cheepooroopully, and they confessed that they always made a detour from 
the direct road to that place for the express purpose of procuring it .' 
Further : — 
' I sent for one of the soorma merchants in the bazar, and on my showing him 
several pieces of that by me, he at once said it was sooima of inferior description 
and worth about 2 annas a lb., in the crude state : he further said that he had 
been in the habit of purchasing the same ore from the Mundoolawanlco caste 
I have referred to '. 
Balfour says that : — 
' the ore, first mentioned by Mr Crozier, which the people consider an 
inferior description of the sulphuret of antimony, soormah, so largely used in 
medicine and for the toilet in this country, has been carefully analysed by 
Dr. A. Scott, who has reported it to contain 53 and 54 percent, of metallic 
manganese, and oxygen ab iut 22-558 
According to the Reports by the Juries, Madras Exhibition, 1855, 
page 3, the manganese-ores from Vizianagram and Bimlipatam : — 
' occur in huge veins from 3 to 5 feet in thickness amongst primitive granites. ' 
1 On the Iron Ores ; the Manufacture of Iron and Steel ; and the Coals of the 
Madras Presidency, Madras. 1855, pp. 238-240. 
2 Doubtless in the area now known as the Kodur Mines. 
2 P 
