DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF A MINERAL, ETC. 109 
Description. — The mineral varied in aspect, in different 
pieces ; most of it was white, with a slight tint of red, of a 
granular texture, appearing through the glass, a mass of glitter- 
ing grains, without taste, yielding to the finger nail, and, in 
short, had all the appearances of the granular gypsum of mi- 
neralogists. Other portions had a stratified, somewhat crys- 
talline texture, and a grayish white clouded color. The speci- 
fic gravity of the former was 2.233, that of the latter was 2.222. 
•Analysis. — One drachm of the mineral was boiled with six 
ounces of water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, until twenty- 
six grains had been dissolved, and the liquor filtered while 
hot. To the hot filtered solution, oxalate of ammonia was ad- 
ded, until a precipitate ceased to be produced. This precipi- 
tate, when collected, washed and dried, weighed twenty grains, 
and was then heated to redness. The resulting powder dis- 
solved readily in nitric acid with effervescence, and possessed 
the characters of carbonate of lime. 
Twenty grains of oxalate of lime is equivalent to 8.8 of 
lime which, united with one equivalent of sulphuric acid, 
makes 21.1 grains of anhydrous sulphate of lime, which is 
very near the quantity that exists in twenty-six grains of the 
hydrous sulphate. 
A portion of the mineral was boiled in water (which dis- 
solved a small quantity,) and the solution filtered. When 
chloride of barium was added, a dense precipitate resulted, 
which had the characters of sulphate of baryta, and con- 
sequently proving the existence of sulphuric acid in the mi- 
neral. 
To render the evidence in favor of the mineral being sul- 
phate of lime, a portion of it was powdered and calcined, by 
which operation it lost weight and bulk, and acquired the pro- 
perty of solidifying by the addition of a proper quantum of 
water, peculiar to the sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris. 
Hence there can be little doubt that the mineral is granular 
gypsum. Existing in such vast quantities as has been repre- 
sented, this mineral production will doubtless at some future 
