III.—On the Existence of Crystals with different primitive forms and physical properties in the Cavities of Minerals; with additional Observations on the New Fluids in which they occur

Abstract

In 1823 and 1826 I communicated to the Society two papers on the nature and properties of two immiscible fluids, which I discovered, in contact with each other, in the cavities of topaz and other minerals. Although the facts contained in these papers were of so extraordinary a nature as to be received with scepticism by some, and with ridicule by others, yet I am not aware that, during the twenty years which have elapsed since their publication, any person has either repeated my observations, or advanced a single step in the same path of inquiry. In shewing to strangers some of the leading phenomena of the two new fluids, my attention has been frequently recalled to the subject; but it was not till last spring, when I discovered cavities in topaz filled with the most beautiful crystals of various form, that I was induced to undertake a new investigation of their nature and properties.