The use of the blowpipe in chemical analysis, and in the examination of minerals / by J.J. Berzelius ; translated from the French of M. Fresnel, by J. G. Children. With a sketch of Berzelius' system of mineralogy; a synoptic table of the principal characters of the pure earths and metallic oxides before the blowpipe, and numerous notes and additions by the translator.

  • Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, friherre, 1779-1848.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The use of the blowpipe in chemical analysis, and in the examination of minerals / by J.J. Berzelius ; translated from the French of M. Fresnel, by J. G. Children. With a sketch of Berzelius' system of mineralogy; a synoptic table of the principal characters of the pure earths and metallic oxides before the blowpipe, and numerous notes and additions by the translator. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nity to mention with gratitude the names of Haüy, Bournon, Gillet de Laumont, Brongniart, Brochant, Cordier, Lucas, Weiss, and Blöde. When we meet with a mineral not sufficiently distinguished by its physical characters, there are generally but few known fossils with which it can be confounded. If, therefore, we compare the effects produced by the action of the blowpipe on the mineral in question, with the descriptions of ana- logous effects on the minerals which resemble it, we shall seldom fail to ascertain the nature of the one we are operating on. As to the metallic fossils, nothing is easier. With the purely earthy minerals the result is not quite so decisive ; since, in experi- ments with the blowpipe, the precision of the re- sult depends in general rather on differences in the nature of the constituent parts of a mineral than on their propositions. But even in compounds which differ only in the relative quantities of their component parts, we often find such remarkable differences in their degrees of fusibility, or the phenomena which they present when treated by the same flux, that the blowpipe is still sufficient to decide the question. As we are often mistaken respecting the nature of a mineral, when, considering only its external character, we disregard the phenomena which de- pend on its chemical composition, so also, we sel- dom succeed in determining it, if, neglecting the former, we rely wholly on the effects produced by the blowpipe. Those modern mineralogists who 2