and their combinations. The visitor should examine the cases in the order in which they are arranged, beginning with the cases marked 1 and 1A. These two cases contain specimens of native Iron. Native iron has nearly always proved to be of meteoric origin; and the specimens are here arranged in the order in which they have been found. They have fallen from the heavens at different places, and at different periods. The largest known aerolite is that which fell in Brazil, and was no less than eight feet in length. These huge solid masses of iron, discharged from the clouds in a burning state, may well set the brains of philosophic men to work, to unravel the splendid mystery that contrives laboratories high up in the air, from which dense tons of pure iron are discharged upon our earth. Humboldt, discarding the Laplaceian theory that aerolites were detached masses of the moon, which ignited on reaching the oxygen that surrounds our globe, asserts that they are Lilliputian planets, having their system as we have ours; that they are identical with shooting stars, and that they occasionally fall to the earth by coming within the attraction of a body of overpowering magnitude. In the case with these meteoric specimens of native iron are specimens of native Copper—not often found in a pure state; native Lead, of meteoric origin; one specimen, exhibited in the form of a medal, having been cast out of the crater of Vesuvius about two hundred years ago; and native Bismuth, which expands as it cools.
In the second case the visitor will particularly notice the beautiful threads of native Silver from the Hartz Mountains; and the various forms in which pure silver is found; native Mercury, and combinations of mercury and silver called native amalgam, some moulded into figures by Mexican miners; native Platinum from Siberia; and Palladium.
The third case of the series is resplendent with samples of native Gold—a metal that plays so powerful a part in the affairs of men—that has roused the fiercest passions of mankind, and been coveted by human beings from the remote times when the Phoenicians dreamt of golden lands in the east. Half of this table case is covered with native gold and alloys. Pure gold is generally found in separate crystals or grains, but the metal is mostly found combined with other substances. It is alloyed, for manufacturing purposes, with copper and silver.
Half of the third case, and cases 4, 5, and 6 in this room, are covered with various electro-negative metals and metalloids, classed according to the system laid down by Berzelius. In the third case are Tellurium and Tellurets. In the fourth are samples of native Arsenic, and its combinations with nickel and cobalt; Carbon in its various forms, pure as in the diamonds, which the visitor will notice attentively, some imbedded in the earth in which they were discovered, and models of celebrated diamonds; Black Lead in porcelain earth, for which Cumberland is celebrated; Selenium in its combinations with lead, mercury, sulphur, and other metals; and a medallion, in selenium, of Berzelius, who discovered this metal in 1818. The sixth case is covered with Sulphurets, chiefly of iron, these being commonly known as iron pyrites. These specimens of the commonest of metallic ores are from various parts of the world. Upon this table also are deposited Lord Greenock's sulphuret of cadmium, commonly called greenockite; and sulphurets of nickel. Having examined the first six cases of the series ranged along the southern side of the room, the visitor should turn to the six last cases of the series (55-60). The first northern case (55) is covered with various Sulphates, or metals in combination with sulphuric acid, exhibiting beautiful crystals and colours, including sulphate of magnesia from Oregon; sulphate of zinc, or white vitriol; sulphate of iron, or green vitriol; and the splendid blue sulphates of copper from Hungary; beautiful sulphates of lead from Anglesea; sulphates of alumina; common alum; and the splendid specimens of lazurite, or lapis-lazuli,—
"Blue as the veins o'er the Madonna's breast,"
from which the beautiful pigment called ultramarine is extracted. In 1828 M. Guimet succeeded in making an artificial ultramarine, known now extensively as French ultramarine, which is little, if at all, inferior in beauty to lazurite. The next case (56) contains the Arseniates, including arseniate of lime, crystallised; arseniates of copper; arseniate of nickel; and red cobalt, or arseniate of cobalt. The next case is devoted to the Phosphates, or metals mixed with phosphoric acid, including crystals of the phosphate of iron from Fernando Po, Bavaria, and Cornwall; phosphates of manganese; phosphate of copper; yellow and green uranite; phosphates of alumina, including the blue spar, which has been mistaken for lapis-lazuli, and the phosphate of alumina known as turquois, found only in Persia, and esteemed as an ornament. In the two supplemental table cases, 57 A and B, the visitor may notice specimens of Pyromorphite, a combination of phosphate and chloride of lead, and a combination of chloride of calcium with phosphate of lime. These combinations, however, cannot interest the general visitor.
The case marked 58 contains the varieties of Fluorides, or combinations of fluorine and the metals. These include the fluoride of calcium, of which the most familiar variety to Englishmen is that known as Derbyshire spar, of which many useful articles are manufactured in this country. Ladies particularly will halt with interest before the case marked 58 A, where the fluorides, better known as the topaz, are deposited. These include a fine series of crystals from the Brazils, Siberia, and Saxony.
The 59th case is covered with Chlorides, or combinations of chlorine with other substances, including rock salt, or chloride of sodium; sal-ammoniac from Vesuvius; fine chloride of copper, exhibiting beautiful crystals; and chlorides of silver and mercury. The two last cases in the room (60 and 60 A) contain samples of coal, bitumen, resins, and salts. Here will be found the honey-stone of Thuringia; crystals of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia called struvite; beautiful specimens of amber, some pieces of which inclose insects; and copal, also containing insects; fossil copal; mineral pitch, from naphtha to asphalt; the elastic bitumen of Derbyshire, exhibiting its different degrees of softness; Humboldt's dapèche, an inflammable fossil of South America; and brown and black coal. Having noticed all these varieties, the visitor should advance at once westward into the second room of the mineralogical gallery.
Here, against the southern wall, are groups of