X. 1. II. 111. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. Shadis Ived by potashi, 36-00 17:06 19 40 123 950 195 Total loss of rock after calcination !of the residue. 37 83 27-27 30 15 17 89 16 55 26 852444 17 20 18.60 18:41 15 35 8.50 5-80 I. Brownish red Trachyte with gray globulcs and blackish mica, from Hungary. IV. Globulous Retinite of a maroon-red color, from Meissen. V. Retinite without lustre, and very resinous, from Sardinia. VII. Deep black Obsidian, from Lipari. VIIL Argillaceous Eurite, of a brick-red color, from Saxony. IX. Yellowish brown Palagonite, with a resinoid paste, from Iceland. X. Melaphyre with a dark green paste containing greenish-white Labradorite, XI. Basalt with a blackish paste and crystals of Augite, from Bohemia. XIIL Quartziferous porphyry with a cellular paste of a reddish-gray color and much glassy quartz, from Saxony. The following general conclusions may be deduced: When a rock is attacked by an alkali, some alumina as well as silica is removed, with also some water, potash and soda; besides also a little lime, magnesia, and traces of oxyd of iron. The amount of silica removed exceeds that of all the other substances. The alumina and water follow next after the silica in amount removed. Granite is not thus attacked when boiled with an alkaline solution; Quartziferous Porphyry is feebly attacked, losing only some hundredths. Lava, Basalt, and Melaphyre, lose less than 20 per cent. Trachyte, Retinite, Perlite and Obsidian, suffer the largest loss, but not exceeding 40 per cent. A rock containing water is attacked much less readily by alkalies af ter it has been calcined; for the Perlite of Cape de Gata, for example, the loss before and after calcination, is nearly as 23 to 1. A rock is much more easily attacked when partially decomposed. Argillaceous Eurites or Kaolins, which are only decomposed granitic rocks, experience a much greater loss than the granitic rocks. Other things equal, the action of the alkalies is greater the larger the amount of silica, or the less crystalline their structure, and the less of hyaline quartz they contain. The vitreous rocks, which contain little or no quartz, like Retinite, Perlite, Obsidian, Trachyte, are strongly attacked by alkalies. On substituting alkaline carbonates for the alkalies, certain rocks, and especially the vitreous, are still attacked, but to a less extent. The facility with which the alkalies and even the alkaline carbonates attack rocks, shows that it is difficult to use them for separating the free or immediately soluble silica which may exist in a rock, especially in clays and kaolins. I observe, also, that in obsidian, for example, the silica which is dissolved is not free silica, but it is in the condition of a silicate attackable by the alkali; so also with Retinite, the silica is not in the state of opal, as generally regarded, but in that of an attackable hydrosilicate. In a word, in all vitreous or porphyritic rocks, hydrated or not, the silica is in combination, forming a compound, not definite, which the alkali attacks, and which is the paste of the rocks. The waters of infiltration which penetrate rocks contain always small proportions of alkaline salts, even near the earth's surface; and hence it is obvious that these salts should contribute towards the decomposition of the rocks and the formation of pseudomorphs. But at a small depth below, the waters are more largely charged with alkaline salts, and both temperature and pressure increase rapidly; they may attack, therefore, quite strongly, the rocks with which they come in contact; as happens notably with mineral waters, geysers, and other results of volcanic action. Consequently the action of alkalies or of alkaline salts on rocks plays an important part, not only in the formation of pseudomorphs, but also in the chemical reactions which take place in the interior of our planet. 4. On the Prosopite of Scheerer; by JAMES D. DANA.-Prosopite is described as a new mineral by Scheerer in Poggendorff's Annalen, No. 10, 1853, p. 315. The mineral occurs at the Tin mines of Altenberg in crystals altered mostly to a kaolin; and from some qualitative trials of unaltered portions, it is supposed to consist of aluminium, calcium, fluorine and water. It had been regarded as a pseudomorph after Heavy Spar: Scheerer recognizes its relations to that species in the angles, and also marks differences; Heavy Spar has the three angles 77° 43', 128° 36', 105° 24', and Prosopite correspondingly 77° 30', 132°, 116°. Unlike Heavy Spar, the crystals are hemihedral. The faces of the crystals are dull, and admit of measurement only with the common goniometer. Scheerer suggests that the formula may be CaF+AF3, analagous to that of Heavy Spar which is CaO+SO3. This comparison with Heavy Spar does not exhibit its true affinities. In fact the angles are almost identical with those of Datholite, with which it also agrees in its hemihedral character. The following angles show this resemblance. The planes of Datholite here referred to will be learned from the figures on page 215 of this volume. i2 : i2 = 77°-78° (=d: d' of Scheerer.) O: 2i = 135° (=C : B) 2: 2 (adj.) 132° (=z: z') i2 : i2 = 76° 44' 0:27 135° 2:2 (adj.) = 131° 52′ 21: 21 (top)= 115° 26' 23: 23 (adj.) = 118° 9′ 23: 23 (adj.) = 119° =(t : t') Owing to the disguised character of the mineral, it was named Prosopite from προσώπειον, a mask -a name certainly well deserved. The symbols of the planes used above become Naumann's on inserting a P, and putting a for i. The plane (P2) is that usually considered P. 5. Geological Survey of Tennessee.-The State of Tennessee has ordered a Geological Survey of its territory, and appointed to the work Prof. J. M. Safford of Cumberland University, Tennessee. The appointment is a most excellent one. Professor Safford is well prepared for the duties, and his final Reports will, beyond doubt, prove both val uable and honorable to the State and to science. 6. Telegraphic Longitude at Brussels.-Under this title, the Athenæum of January 14th, states that the American method of determining difference of longitude by means of the Electric Telegraph, has at last been introduced into Europe. "The Royal Observatory at Greenwich is now permanently connected by one line of wires with the South Eastern and Electric Telegraph System, and by another line with the System of the Submarine and Electric Telegraph." At the observatories of Brussels and Greenwich, about 3000 signals have been observed simultaneously for the comparison of the two transit clocks. The lines are available also for experimenting on the time occupied by the passage of the galvanic pulse from Greenwich to Brussels and the reverse. And from the observations thus far made, it appears that the time is " pretty accurately one-tenth of a second." Rapid as is the velocity which this implies (about 2700 miles per second, supposing the velocity uniform along the whole line) it is much less rapid than that found in the experiments with Edinburgh (about 7600 miles per second), and still less than that determined on some of the American lines (about 18000 miles per second). The difference undoubtedly depends. on the circumstance that the greater part of the line to Brussels is subterranean and submarine, which position of the wires, without in any degree impairing the insulation (which, perhaps, is the most perfect in the world), does by an ill-understood effect of induction, greatly retard. the speed of transit.". 66 It is expected that before long Greenwich will be connected in a similar way with the French and Dutch observatories, and these with others over Europe. "Nearly the whole of Europe is now covered with a net of geodetic triangulation, connecting the western coasts of Ireland and France with the interior of Russia and borders of Turkey. The combination of the geodetic measure with the ascertained difference of longitude will afford one of the best materials for the measure of the earth.” 7. The World of Science, Art and Industry, illustrated from Examples in the New York Exhibition, 1853 '54. Edited by Prof. B. SILLIMAN, Jr., and C. R. GOODRICH, Esq., aided by several scientific and literary men. With 500 illustrations, under the superintendence of C. E. Döpler, Esq. 200 pp. 4to., New York, 1854, G. P. Putnam.-This work, independently of the great number and elegance of its illustrations, has a high value as a record of the Exhibition at New York in 1853, and also on account of the many essays it contains on subjects connected with the recent progress of practical science and the various arts. 8. The Electro-Magnetic Telegraph; by LAURENCE TURNBULL, M.D., 2nd edition, revised and improved, illustrated by numerous engravings. 264 pp. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1853. A. Hart.--This work on the Telegraph is practical, scientific and historical, and the best exposition we have of the American system. Moreover, in an appendix it contains several important telegraphic decisions and laws. The work would be improved by an account of the application of the Telegraph to the determination of longitude. SECOND SERIES, Vol. XVII, No. 51.-May, 1854. 58 9. Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms, containing the true [?] law of lunar influence, with practical instructions to the navigator, to enable him approximately to calculate the coming changes of the wind and weather, for any given day and for any part of the ocean; by T. BARNETT. 246 pp. 12mo. New York, 1854. D. Appleton & Co. 10. Fownes' Chemistry for Students.--A new edition of this well established and valued work has just been published by Messrs. Blanchard & Lea, of Philadelphia, from the last Lond. edition by Drs. Bence, Jones and Hoffman. The American edition is edited with care by Dr. Bridges. 11. A Manual of British Mineralogy; by R. P. GREG, F.G.S., and W. G. LETTSOM. 8vo. Price £1 1s.--The British Mineralogy of Messrs. Greg & Lettsom is now in press and its appearance is prom ised in the course of the season. The work, as we learn, and should infer from our knowledge of the authors, will be a thorough treatise on the minerals of Britain, and will contain a large amount of original matter, descriptions and figures of many new forms of crystals, new analyses, besides statistical and other useful information respecting the mines of Britain and their products. The work will be illustrated by nearly 300 wood-cuts and a few colored lithographic plates, illustrating some unique and remarkable specimens. 12. My Schools and My Schoolmasters; or, the Story of My Educa tion, by HUGH MILLER. Edinb., Johnstone & Hunter. (Extracts from a notice in the Athenæum of March 11, 1854).-Mr. Miller's grandfa ther was a buccaneer--his father was a sailor--to whom he was born, the first child of marriage, in the remote shire of Cromarty, A. D., 1802. The boy showed some glimpses of the fierce and piratical thews and sinews of his ancestor in his early days, when he laid the hands of force on his schoolmaster, who tried to flog him because he would not spell awful" in the right way; but earlier even than this, he had be come a devourer of books--(and to that remote place the Arabian Nights' and Gulliver,' and 'Captain Cook's Voyages' and 'Udolpho,' and Ambrose on Angels,' penetrated as well as the Shorter Catechism,' the Proverbs and the New Testament)--and an observer of the minute aspects and hidden things of nature. He had begun to watch the habits of birds, and to note the colors of flowers, and to try to read that which (to avail ourselves of one of Mr. Ruskin's fantastic figures of speech) creative wisdom has written in the caverns of the earth. His kith and kin, some of them pure Highlanders, were men of marked character,--so that, with these surroundings, and these propensities of mind and endowments of body, there was small chance of the Cromarty boy lacking such adventures as serve a bold spirit for schooling, and an apt intelligence instead of schoolmasters. Active life, however, must needs be commenced, and as the boy was not particularly amenable (as may have been guessed) to academical discipline, and as his kinsfolk had little choice within their reach, there was no alternative for him save to betake himself to manual labor. Regarding this again, he shall tell his own story. "The husband of one of my maternal aunts was a mason, who, contracting for jobs on a small scale, usually kept an apprentice or two, and employed a few journeyman. With him I agreed to serve for the term of three years; and, getting a suit of strong moleskin clothes, and a pair of heavy hob-nailed shoes, I waited only for the breaking up of the winter frosts to begin work in the Cromarty quarries--jobbing masters in the north of Scotland usually combining the profession of the quarrier with that of the mason. The quarry in which I commenced my life of labor was, as I have said, a sandstone one, and exhibited in the section of the furze-covered bank which it presented, a bar of deep-red stone beneath, and a bar of pale-red clay above. Both deposits belonged to formations equally unknown at the time to the geologist. The deep-red stone formed part of an upper member of the Lower Old Red Sandstone; the pale-red clay, which was much roughened by rounded pebbles, and much cracked and fissured by the recent frosts, was a bed of the boulder clay. Save for the wholesome restraint that confined me for day after day to this spot, I would perhaps have paid little attention to either. Though now seventeen, I was still seven inches short of my ultimate stature, and my frame, cast more at that time in the mould of my mother, than in that of the robust sailor, whose back,' according to the description of one of his comrades, no one had ever put to the ground,' was slim and loosely knit, and I used to suffer much from wandering pains in the joints, and an oppressive feeling about the chest, as if crushed by some great weight. I became subject, too, to frequent fits of extreme depression of spirits, which took almost the form of a walking sleep--results, I believe, of excessive fatigue--and during which my absence of mind was so extreme that I lacked the ability of protecting myself against accident, in cases the most simple and ordinary." The reader is referred to the work itself for the continuation of the eventful and instructive history, the final result of which, in the able geologist, Hugh Miller, is familiar to all. 13. Annual of Scientific Discovery, or Year Book in Science and Art for 1854--exhibiting the most important discoveries and improvements in Mechanics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, &c., edited by DAVID A. WELLS, A.M. Boston, 1854. Gould & Lincoln. 14. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. v, 1853.—Art. I. Introduction. II. A Flora and Fauna within living animals; by Joseph Leidy, M. D. III. Memoir upon the Extinct Species of Fossil Ox; by J. Leidy. IV. Anatomy of the Nervous System of the Rana pipiens; J. Wyman. V. Nerealis Boreali-Americana, Part II; by Win. Henry Harvey. VI. Planta Wrightianæ Neo-Mexicanæ, Part II; by Asa Gray. 15. Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1852. Washington, 1853. WM. STIMPSON: Synopsis of the Marine Invertebrata of Grand Manan, or the region about the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick--From the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 56 pp. 4to, with two plates. Contains descriptions of many new species and some new genera in the different orders of Invertebrata. Dr. J. VICTOR CARUS: System der thierischen Morphologie, 506 pp. 8vo, with 97 wood-cuts. Leipzig, 1853. W. Engelmann. HANNS BRUNO GEINITZ: Die Versteinerungen der Grauwackenformation in Sachsen und den angrenzenden Lander-abtheilungen. Heft II. 4to, with 20 lithographic plates. Leipzig, 1853. W. Engelmann. |