A  Piece  of  Pitchblende. 
{  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       April,  1909. 
A  prominent  metallurgist  was  the  one  to  open  the  debate.  In  a 
snappy  and  interest-compelling  manner  he  gave  an  account  of  the 
principal  ores  of  iron,  their  occurrence  in  nature  and  their  economic 
importance,  and  he  vividly  depicted  the  various  processes  by  which 
the  most  useful  of  the  metals — iron  and  steel — are  extracted  from 
these  earthy  substances. 
He  was  followed  by  a  mineralogist,  well  known  for  his  con- 
tributions to  crystallography  and  crystal-physics.  While  conceding 
that  the  iron  ores  had  perhaps  few  rivals  among  the  useful  minerals, 
and  that  the  metal  obtained  from  them  had  been  one  of  the  greatest 
material  factors  in  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  human  race,  he 
was  of  the  opinion  that,  considered  simply  as  minerals,  they  did  not 
even  remotely  approach  in  interest  a  score  or  more  of  other  mineral 
substances  which  he  could  name  without  even  stopping  to  think. 
But  if  he  had  to  express  a  decided  preference  for  any  particular  one 
of  these,  it  would  be  carbonate  of  lime  in  its  multiform  varieties. 
It  would  be  impossible,  he  said,  to  find  another  material  which  is 
capable  of  appealing  to  our  sense  of  beauty  in  so  many  different 
ways.  He  then  proceeded  to  explain  the  intricate  molecular  structure 
of  calcite  and  aragonite  which  manifests  itself  in  the  diverse  crystal 
forms  and  optical  properties  of  these  species,  then  dwelt  upon  the 
picturesque  and  weird  forms  that  Nature  has  fashioned  and  carved 
out  of  limestone,  chalk  and  coral  rock,  and  on  the  beauties  presented 
by  this  substance  in  the  corals,  shells  and  pearls,  and  in  the  endless 
varieties  of  marble, — white,  colored  and  variegated.  And  what  other 
material,  he  exclaimed,  can  vie  with  marble  in  expressing  and 
perpetuating  the  finest  conceptions  of  the  great  masters  of  sculpture 
and  architecture,  from  the  most  ancient  times  to  our  own  day? 
And  if  it  came  to  a  question  of  utility,  he  believed  that  carbonate  of 
lime  exceeded  the  iron  ores  even  in  this  respect ;  for  besides  supplying 
us  with  building  stones,  concrete  and  mortar,  it  was  an  indispensable 
adjunct  to  the  manufacture  of  iron,  soda,  glass,  bleach  and  innumer- 
able other  commodities. 
Other  speakers  then  championed  with  varying  success  the  claims 
of  such  minerals  as  quartz,  the  felspars,  the  ores  of  copper,  lead  and 
the  precious  metals,  the  diamond  and  other  gems,  until  another 
pronounced  hit  was  scored  by  a  mechanical  engineer  who  made  an 
eloquent  plea  for  coal.  He  regretted  that  his  limited  knowledge  of 
geology,  botany  and  organic  chemistry  would  not  permit  his  doing 
full  justice  to  the  subject,  but  nevertheless  he  hoped  to  show  that 
