of heavy earth, and in the fame year he published his celebrated work on fire.

Dr. C. next paffes to a review of Scheele's papers published in the Tranfactions of the academy of Stockholm, containing accounts of the greater part of his discoveries; fuch as of the arfenical, molybdænic, fluoric, oxalic, cítric, and malic acids; his analysis of plumbago, of æthers, and of the fiderite, &c. Then follows an account of what is known of his labours by difperfed writings: after which Dr. Crell concludes by a fhort fketch of his moral character, which exhibits many excellent and amiable qualities.

"II. On the Effential Salt of Galls. By C. W. Scheele.

This is one of those papers of Scheele which appeared in fome of the early numbers of Crell's Journal, from which the tranflators promife to felect and publish occasionally. But as its contents have been already communicated to the British chemifts through other channels, we fhall not detain our readers with an account of this, or other papers fimilarly circumstanced. III. Obfervations on the Preparation of Magnefia from Epfom "Salt. By the Same."

"IV. On the Nature of a peculiar Earth in Rhubarb. By

"the Same."

From fifteen ounces of the root two of this earth were obtained, which, from a number of accurate and well planned experiments, appeared to be a neutral falt confifting of the acid of forrel and calcareous earth.

"V. On pure and perfect Reguli of Tungsten and Molybdæna. "By Mr. Ruprecht."

The reguli of tungften were found" of the colour of the lighter fort of pyrites, of a compact and granulated texture, "and in their fracture of a luftre which refembles moft that of "fome of the deep yellow copper pyrites. They are fome"what malleable, but lefs fo than zinc; they are not attract"ed by the magnet: they are almost as foft as bifmuth, being "eafily ground upon a common whetstone."

The reguli of the molybdena are "externally of a lead "colour, internally of a granulated texture and colour like fteel, and of a faint luftre; notwithstanding they are very "compact, they are very brittle and foft, refifting the whet"ftone ftill lefs than the regulus of tungften, and leaving upon it a blackish stain. They are not attracted by the " magnet."

"VI. Experiments on the Fufion of Platina. By Mr. Willis, 44 of London."

This paper is extracted from the Memoirs of the Literary and Philofophical Society of Manchester, vol. iii. 1790.

"VII. On the Diftillation of Ardent Spirits from Carrots. "Dr. Hunter, and Mr. Hornby of York."

By

Extracted from the fecond volume of the Edinburgh Tranf

actions.

"VIII. On Phofphorated Calcareous Earth. By Meff. Pelletier

"and Donadei."

This paper, and No. XVIII. which is a continuation of it, contain a feries of experiments made with the view of analyfing the phofphorated calcareous earth brought from Spain, and collected in the province of Eftremadura: the first account of which was given by Mr. Prouft. His defcription of it is, that it is

"Of a whitish colour, uniform, pretty compact, but not hard enough to ftrike fire with fteel. It occurs in ftrata frequently interfected with a pure quartz, and these ftrata present to view an affemblage of fibres which are flat and adhere clofely together, and generally run in a vertical direction, but are fometimes inclined in fuch a manner as to appear here and there fomewhat wedgeshaped in their arrange

ment.

From the experiments it appears, that I co grains of phofph. calc. earth contain, of

Fixed air, about

Marine acid, contained in a grain of muriated lime
Iron

Quartz

Pure calcareous earth

Grains (French wt.

Fluor and phosphoric acids 36 grains, which are fuppofed to be in the following proportion :

Phosphoric acids

Fluor acid

341

"IX. Experiments and Obfervations on the Diffolution of Metals "in Acids, and their Precipitations; with an Account of a new compound Acid Menftruum, useful in fome Technical Opera"tions of parting Metals from Silver. By James Keir, Efq. F. R.S."

This paper, and No. XVII. are extracted from the Philofophical Tranfactions for 1790, part ii, and contain two fets of experiments; one fhewing the effects of compounding the vitriolic and nitrous acids, in diffolving filver; and the other defcribing fome curious phenomena which occur in the precipitation of filver, from its folution in nitrous acid, by iron; which phenomena Mr. Keir is to explain in a subsequent paper.

"..X. Dif

** X. Diftillation of the Black Calx of Manganefe with the "Vitriolic Acid. By Meffrs. Vauquelin and Bouvier."

The experiments related in this paper were intended to establish or refute the affertion of Mr. Schurrer, that Vitriolic by diftillation with black manganefe, is rendered capable "of diffolving gold, filver, mercury, &c. eafily, and without "effervefcence.' Which affertion Mell. V. and B. found to

be erroneous.

"XI. Chemical News."

"XII. Lift of Books on Chemistry."

XIII. On the real Nature of the Salt of Woodforrel, and on "its artificial Production. By Mr. Scheele."

Mr. S. fhows, by experiment, that the acid of sugar and oxalic acid are one and the fame.

" XIV. Analysis of Native Siderite, and of Prouft's Perlated "Salt. By C. W. Scheele."

It is well known that both Sir T. Bergmann and Mr. Meyer thought they had discovered the cause of the " cold short quality" of iron to depend on a new femi-metal, which was denominated fiderite; but which Mr. Meyer himself, and Mr. Klaproth, of Berlin, afterwards difcovered to be only a phofphorated iron. This opinion, however, did not appear to Mr. S. to be fully eftablished: and the first fet of experiments related in this paper was intended to afcertain that point, which it does by confirming it.

The fecond part of the paper shows the existence of phofphoric acid in Mr. Prouft's perlated falt, which had been doubted by many. Mr. S. did this by precipitating a folution of green vitriol, and a folution of calcined iron; the precipitates from each of which exhibited all the phenomena of the fiderite.

"XV. Chemical Investigation of Uranium, a newly discovered "Metallic Subftance. By Profeffor Klaproth."

This paper, and No. XXII. contain the analysis of a semimetal, which, till very lately, has been but little known to the mineralogifts of this country. It is found in the George Wagsfort mine, at Johann-Georgenstadt, and was denominated by the miners Pechblende.

Mr. Werner, after many doubts, conjectured, that it was a combination of the acids of tungften and wolfram with iron; which opinion feemed afterwards to be confirmed by two per fons engaged in metallurgic purfuits at Chemnitz.

In the Prefent paper, however, Profeffor K. fhows it to be a new, distinct, and undefcribed femi-metal, of a very refractory

N 3

nature,

nature, he never having been able to reduce its calces by any method. It may be faid to conftitute a new genus, comprehending feveral fpecies and varieties.

"XVI. New Obfervations relative to fome remarkable Phenomena produced by the dephlogifticated Marine Acid. By Mr. "Weftrumb."

The firft part of this paper is occupied in repeating experiments, which only confirm what has been already known of this gas; or, as Mr. W. calls it, vapour. The fecond part contains a number of very curious experiments, fhowing, that many fubftances, fuch as cinnabar, kermes mineral, regulus of antimony, regulus of arfenic, bifmuth, regulus of cobalt, tin, zinc, iron, and fome other fubftances, take fire fpontaneoufly when immersed in marine dephlogisticated vapour.

"XIX. On the beft Method of Dying with red Saunders. "By Mr. Vogler."

Mr. Vogler thinks the present mode of dying with red faunders wood (Pterocarpus fantolinus Linn.) extremely faulty, fince the watery menftruums, which are commonly employed for that purpose, do not extract all the colouring particles from the wood. What he recommends for this purpofe is brandy, which extracts the whole rich colour of the wood: and, after the articles to be dyed have been duly prepared, and foaked in certain mordant liquors which he defcribes, communicates to them the most brilliant and beautiful dye,

"XX. Chemical News."

"XXI. New Demonftration of the Specific Nature of the Fluor "Acid. By Mr. Scheele."

This is a paper of controverfy in confequence of certain affertions of Mr. Archard refpecting the fluor, in which he pretended to discover a particular volatile earth. We cannot allow room fufficient to ftate Mr. A's affertions, far lefs to relate the ingenious experiments by which Mr. S. demonftrated both the falfity of these affertions, and the true nature of the mineral in queftion.

"XXIII. On the Means of obtaining Vinegar in its highest "Degree of Concentration, and in a cryftallized Form. By "Mr. Lowitz, of Petersburgh."

Mr. L. has discovered two ways of obtaining vinegar in its

* The tranflators fay menftrua, but an established English word ought to have its regular plural.

moft

moft concentrated state, and fo as to afford very elegant crystals in a certain degree of cold.

The first of these methods is fimple freezing and diftillation; the fecond, distillation with charcoal, which Mr. L. found to have the property of " imbibing a certain quantity of the "acetous acid in a very concentrated state, and of retaining it "fo ftrongly, that the acid cannot be feparated from it again, but by the application of a confiderably greater degree of heat than that of boiling water,"

"XXIV. Analytical Experiments on a mineral from Sidney"Cove, in New South-Wales. By Jofiah Wedgwood, Efq.

F. R. S

This paper is taken from the Philofophical Transactions for 1790.

“ XXV. On the Metals obtained from the fimple Earths. By "Mr. Tihavfky, of Vienna.' This paper clofes the first volume of this Journal, the next number being chemical news,

As it is now well ascertained, that the whole of the wonderful discoveries announced in the title of the present paper were mere illufions; and as it is alfo well known whence those proceeded, we fhall forbear giving any account of it,

We fhall take our leave of the tranflators for this month; but we cannot do fo without offering an obfervation to their confideration; it is, that we are extremely forry to fee nearly half the volume filled with copies and extracts, from fuch fources as the English reader has always at command: fuch, for inftance, as the Philofophical Tranfactions, and the Memoirs of the Bath and Manchester Societies; whilft they have neglected many in the original, with which the generality of chemifts of this country cannot become acquainted but by means of a translation. In the original of Crell's Chemical Journal for the year 1790, out of which the tranflators have formed the foreign part of their first volume, we find the following very interesting papers, among many others, entirely unnoticed:

Gmelin on the Combination of Lead with Antimony; Do. on the Combination of Lead and Zinc, Bindheim's Analysis of the AquaMarine; Hermann's Defeription of Siberian Porphyries; Weiglib's Analysis of a Mineral refembling Coal; Weftrumb's Analyfiş of the Adularia, Tc.