of Zeolite. i 
As these experiments had been undertaken more for the 
purpose of ascertaining the nature of the component parts of 
this zeolite than their proportions, the object of them was con- 
sidered as accomplished, although perfect accuracy in the 
latter respect, had not been attained, and which, indeed, the 
analysis we possess of natrolite by the illustrious chemist of 
Berlin, renders unnecessary. 
I am induced to prefer the name of zeolite for this species 
of stone, to any other name, from an unwillingness to oblite- 
rate entirely from the nomenclature of mineralogy, while 
arbitrary names are retained in it, all trace of one of the dis- 
coveries of the greatest mineralogist who has yet appeared, 
and which, at the time it was made, was considered as, and 
was, a very considerable one, being the first addition of an 
earthy species, made by scientific means, to those established 
immemorially by miners and lapidaries, and hence having, 
with tungstein and nickel, led the way to the great and bril- 
liant extension which mineralogy has since received. And, 
of the several substances, which, from the state of science in 
his time, certain common qualities induced Baron Cronstedt 
to associate together under the name of zeolite ; it is this 
which has been most immediately understood as such, and 
whose qualities have been assumed as the characteristic ones 
of the species. 
Indeed, I think that the name imposed on a substance by 
the discoverer of it, ought to be held in some degree sacred, 
and not altered without the most urgent necessity for doing 
it. It is but a feeble and just retribution of respect for the 
service which he has rendered to science. 
Professor Struve, of Lausanne, whose skill in mineralogy 
Z 2 
