208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1879. 



it is glassy. The form of the fracture is conchoidal and perfectly 

 smooth. Hardness between two and three. The specimen re- 

 sembles in its external aspect fossil copal so much that it may be 

 easily mistaken for that material. The fresh vitreous lustre of the 

 amber, however, remains after repeated rubbing and exposure, 

 while copal becomes dull under such treatment. The amber may 

 be worked with a file or an edge tool into even surfaces ; under 

 like treatment copal crumbles, and gives an uneven glistening 

 plane. When the finger is rubbed to and fro" on the amber it will 

 not powder or become mealy like copal. When a portion of the 

 specimen was gently heated in a glass tube closed on one end a 

 dense gas was obtained having the odor of burning fat. After 

 cooling minute radiating groups of crystals were noticed ; fossil 

 copal gives no such indications. The amber burns with a yellow 

 smoking flame, emitting an odor not so disagreeable as that given 

 off during distillation, and leaves some unconsumed carbon. The 

 powder is white, and, if brought in contact with oil of vitriol, it 

 will readily dissolve, forming a ruby red solution, which, when 

 poured into water, gives a nearly colorless precipitate partially in 

 a crystalline state. It is decomposed by nitric acid, forming at 

 first a soft yellow compound which afterwards dissolves. If the 

 excess of the nitric acid be evaporated and water added, thin plates 

 of a golden-yellow color form. These plates appear to be succinic 

 acid ; the} 7 easily dissolve in caustic ammonia, and the solution 

 affords, with a solution of sesquichloride of iron, the well-known 

 cinnamon-brown precipitate of succinate of iron. Both solutions 

 were perfectly neutral. From the solution of the succinate 

 ammonia the succinic acid can be separated on the addition of 

 nitric acid. This process for observing succinic acid in amber 

 is especially applicable when but a small quantity of the acid is 

 present, in which case the process by sublimation fails or becomes 

 uncertain. Chloroform is a good solvent for amber, but alcohol, 

 ether, and bisulphide of carbon dissolve it only sparingly. Copal 

 when kept in ether swells to a greater volume ; amber does not 

 increase in bulk. 



October 21. 



The President, Dr. Ruschenberger, in the chair. 



Thirty-one members present. 



A paper entitled "On some New Eocene Fossils from the Clair- 

 borne Marine Formation of Alabama," by Angelo Heilprin, was 

 presented for publication. 



Ward's Natural Science. Establishment. Prof. Leidy stated 

 that the reputation of Prof. Henry A. Ward's "Natural Science 

 Establishment," at Rochester, N. Y., was such, that lately he had 



