How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
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.
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