Phosphorite in Estreniadura. 
Proust begins by remarking, that the occurrence of phosphate of 
lime, forming entire mountain in Spain, furnishes a proof, that 
phosphoric acid is a substance not confined to the animal kingdom. 
He then alludes to a notice, having reference to the same rock, 
which had appeared in the work entitled ' Hlstoria Natural de 
Espana,' by Bowles, in which we find the following passage : — 
" From thence we proceed to Logrosan, a spot situated at the 
foot of a range of hills which runs from east to west, and goes by 
the name of the Mountains of Guadalupe. On leaving the said 
place, we meet with a vein of phosphoric stone, which crosses the 
Royal Road obliquely from north to south. This stone is of a 
pale colour, without taste, and, when scattered over live coals, 
emits a blue flame unattended with any smell." — (p. 60.) 
It is remarkable, that this property of phosphorescing when 
heated, which first attracted attention, and had caused it to be 
commonly employed for that purpose in the neighbourhood to 
amuse children, though no proof in itself of the presence of 
phosphorus, being possessed by fluor-spar and many carbonates 
of lime totally destitute of all admixture of phosphoric acid, 
should have been the one which in the case before us led to the 
suspicion of its true chemical composition, for Bowles, though he 
speaks of the mineral as a phosphoric stone, seems to have affixed 
this name to it solely from an observation of this one character, 
and not from any further examination into its composition. 
Though deficient however in this respect, the report given by 
Bowles is much more correct in the geological information it 
conveys, than the accounts which have subsequently appeared, 
and if it had been duly attended to, would have prevented a 
great deal of the misapprehension which has since prevailed as to 
the abundance and physical position of the mineral. 
Indeed, it may be doubted, whether any one of the persons 
who have written on this rock subsequently to Bowles, were at 
Logrosan at all, their memoirs in general being mere paraphrases 
of, and speculations on, the theme given in the short description 
we have above translated. 
After thus presenting us with the report of the mineral which 
had been furnished him by Bowles, Proust proceeds to describe 
in the first place its physical characters, and then the extraction of 
phosphorus directly from it, which is done by exposing it to heat 
in connexion with charcoal. There is also, in p. 138 of the same 
volume, a statement of an analysis of this stone made by Pelletier 
and Donadei, at Paris. 
merely from an inspection of the specimens he had received from the spot, 
which he had never himself seen. Owing to his reputation throughout 
Europe as a first-rate practical chemist, more importance was attached to 
his accounts than they really deserve. 
