62 
NATURAL HISTORY. (Minerals.) 
[north 
them possess polarity, of which several specimens are placed in this 
Table Case:—crystallized, compact and granular varieties, in ser¬ 
pentine, chlorite-slate, &c. ; variety with granular quartz, from the East 
Indies, which yields the wootz, or salam-steel, remarkable for its hard¬ 
ness ; magnetic iron-sand. 
Case 15. Specular oxide or iron-glance, among the specimens 
which may be specified those from Elba, remarkable on account of 
their beautiful iridescence and play of colours; the variety in large 
laminar crystals appearing „ like polished steel, from Stromboli and 
Vesuvius;—the micaceous iron-ore of Werner, belonging partly to 
this species, partly to hydrous oxide of iron;—also the red iron-ore , 
generally divided into compact red iron-stone and red hematite, are 
varieties only of this species of argillaceous iron ores. 
Case 16. Hydrous oxide of iron or brown iron-stone, among the 
most remarkable varieties of which species are, the micaceous, called 
gdthite, in delicate transparent tables of a blood-red colour ; that in fine 
scales coating the cells of lava; a shining brownish-black variety used 
as hair powder by the Bootchuana natives beyond the Great River in 
South Africa; the fibrous brown iron-stone or brown hematite; the 
compact and the ochrey brown iron-stone. With these are placed speci¬ 
mens of several sub-species of argillaceous or clay iron-stone, such as the 
columnar, the reniform, the pisiform (pea-ore); among the varieties here 
deposited of this latter, is a sample of the rounded and angular grains 
from the size of a millet-seed to that of a small hazel nut, which, on the 
10th of August, 1841, descended as a shower at Iwan, in the Comitate 
of Oedenburg in Hungary, and were considered as a new species of real 
meteorites, until their terrestrial origin was fully ascertained by micro ¬ 
scopic observation and analysis. 
Case 17. Oxide of copper :—red or ruby-copper compact, foliated, 
and fibrous: one of the more remarkable is the bright-red capillary 
variety from Rheinbreitenbach, called chalcotrichite, (in which selenium 
has been discovered by Kersten,)and from the Bank mines in Siberia; 
_the ferruginous red oxide of copper or tile-ore, an intimate mixture 
of red copper and brown iron-ochre from Hungary, Siberia, &c. ;—the 
black oxide or copper-black, generally mixed with the oxides of iron 
and manganese. — Oxide of bismuth or bismuth-ochre, from Saxony and 
Bohemia .—Red oxide of zinc from New Jersey, also called spartalite 
and sterlingite; to which is added the franklinite, a mineral composed 
of the oxides of zinc and manganese .—Black and yellow earthy cobalt, 
both called cobalt-ochre, which seem to be hydrates of the oxides 
of cobalt and manganese, frequently mixed with oxide of iron.— 
Oxide of uranium, or uran-ochre, occurring at Johanngeorgenstadt 
and Joachimsthal, together with what is called pilch-ore, considered 
by some as a hydrous protoxide of the same metal ; which, however, 
requires further confirmation. 
Case 18. Oxide of lead :—the native minium from Hessia (first 
described by Mr. Smithson), from Siberia, &e., probably produced 
by the decomposition of galena;—with this is placed the beudantite , 
a mineral from Horhausen on the Rhine, which, according to Wol¬ 
laston, consists only of the oxides of lead and iron : M.M. Damour 
and Descloiseaux, however, consider Levy’s beudantite as identical 
with Werner’s wiirfelerz or arseniate of iron (case 53).— Oxide of tin 
