ON  NATIVE  ZINC  AND  NATIVE  TIN. 
543 
fires,  after  having  charred  the  male  or  female  cork,  had  deter- 
mined the  formation  of  a  layer  of  female  cork  in  the  interior  of 
the  "mother."  He  states  that  he  has  seen  a  specimen,  com- 
posed of  three  layers  of  "  female  "  cork,  separated  by  little 
zones  from  the  "  mother  the  fourth  layer,  which  enveloped 
the  whole,  having  disappeared  in  consequence  of  the  fire.  The 
thickness  of  these  zones,  increased  by  the  application  of  boiling 
water,  does  not  diminish  by  cooling.  Other  peculiarities  of 
this  remarkable  substance  are  noted  in  the  memoir. — The  Chem- 
ist and  Druggist,  August  15,  1862. 
ON  NATIVE  ZINC  AND  NATIVE  TIN. 
By  Dr.  T.  L.  Phipson,  f.c.s.,  &c. 
Having  been  requested  to  give  a  description  of  the  Australian 
minerals  exhibited  by  the  various  Australian  Colonies  in  the  In- 
ternational Exhibition,  I  was  surprised  to  find  in  this  magnifi- 
cent collection  a  specimen  of  native  zinc.  This  is  the  first  time 
that  this  metal  has  been  met  with  in  nature  in  the  pure  state. 
The  specimen,  weighing  perhaps  ten  or  twelve  grains,  is  in- 
crusted  in  a  piece  of  basalt,  from  Brunswick,  near  Melbourne, 
Victoria. 
Concerning  native  tin,  it  is  evidently  very  rare  in  nature. 
Some  years  ago,  I  noticed  some  small  white  grains  in  a  sample 
of  platinum  ore  from  the  Ural,  which  appeared  to  be  metallic 
tin.  Hermann  had  already  met  with  this  metal,  in  small  wThite 
grains,  in  the  gold  deposits  of  Siberia,  and,  recently,  M.  Damour 
found  it  accompanying  some  gold  nuggets  from  Guyana.  These 
nuggets  contained  nearly  42  per  cent,  of  platinum,  also  silver 
and  copper.  One  of  them  was  observed  to  have  adhering  to  its 
surface,  and  in  some  of  its  cavities,  a  grayish-white  ductile  metal 
which  was  proved  to  be  metallic  tin. 
The  above  leads  me  to  infer  that  the  supposed  new  element 
noticed  in  the  platinum  ore  of  Rogue  River,  Oregon,  by  Mr. 
Chandler,  and  in  the  platinum  ore  of  California,  by  Dr.  Grenth, 
as  stated  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Chemical  News,  is  simply 
metallic  tin.  The  more  so,  as  these  authors  state  that  the  metal 
in  question  is  malleable,  easily  fusible,  soluble  in  hydrochloric 
acid,  from  which  solution  it  is  precipitated  as  a  brown  sulphide 
35 
