XVI. Account of the Native Hydrate of Magnesia, discovered by Dr Hibbert in Shetland

Extract

The Native Hydrate of Magnesia was first discovered, and ranked as a separate Mineral, by the late Dr Bruce of New York. It was found only at Hoboken in New Jersey, traversing serpentine in every direction, in veins from a few lines to two inches in thickness. Its specific gravity was 2.13, and it yielded upon analysis 70 parts of pure magnesia, and 30 of water.

In the year 1813, I received some fragments of this rare mineral from our late eminent countryman Dr John Murray, and though it exhibited no traces of a crystalline structure, I found it to be a regularly crystallised mineral, with one axis of double refraction perpendicular to the laminæ. The connection between the primitive form of minerals and their number of axes of double refraction, which I observed at a subsequent period, enabled me to determine that the Native Hydrate of Magnesia belonged either to the Rhomboidal or the Pyramidal system of Mohs.