FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 
197 
pTienomena generally attributed to the generation of vapour in the 
interior of the globe, as, for instance, earthquakes, the formation of 
hot springs, the filling up of metalliferoas veins, as also the various 
cases of the metamorphism of rocks. 
" Without excluding the original water, which,eleKient like, is gene- 
rally supposed to be incorporated with the interior melted masses — 
do not these experiments show that the infiltrations descending 
from the surface act in such a manner that the interior regions are 
continually being replenished and exhausted ; the replenishment 
being efiected in a way the most simple, though vastly different from 
the syphon and ordinary sources of supply. 
" Thus a phenomenon, slow, continuous, and regular, becomes the 
cause of sudden and violent manifestations comparable to explosions 
and losses of equihbrium." 
Note on the New Mineral Fournelite. 
M. Ch. Mene, in order to establish the chemical formula of the 
mineral found by him near Beaujeu (Rhone), has made several 
analyses of specimens of different densities furnished him by the 
proprietor of the mines : the results fully confirm those previously 
arrived at in September last. 
The average percentage of the components — leaving the quartz out 
of the question — is as follows : 
Copper 32-0 
Lead 12-0 
Sulphur 23-0 
Iron 3-0 
Arsenic 8*0 
Antimony 22 0 
100-0 
Whence the following symbol is derived : — 
3Cu2 S -r 3Sb2 S2 + Pb S. + Fe. Ar. 
Chemical Characters of Combustible Minerals. 
M. E. Fremy, who for a long time has been carrying on chemical 
investigations on the tissues of vegetables, has laid before the Academy 
of Sciences of Paris the results of his recent researches " On the 
Chemical Character of Combustible Minerals," in which he has also 
sought to inquire if the substances which compose them present any 
analogy with those which form the unaltered tissue of plants. 
Admitting with other geologists that peat, lignite, coal, and an- 
thracite have been formed under different circumstances, and belong 
to rocks of very different ages, he has endeavoured to trace in these 
