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VIII. Examination and Analysis of the Berg-Meal, or Mineral Flour, found in the 

 Parish of Degersfors, in the Province of West Bothnia, on the confines of Swedish 

 Lapland. By THOMAS STEWART TRAILL, M.D., Professor of Medical Jurispru- 

 dence in the University of Edinburgh. 



(Read 18th January 1841.) 



IN 1832 or 1833, a peasant, in felling a tree in the forest about forty miles 

 above Degersfors, laid bare a substance strongly resembling meal, which, tempted 

 by its appearance, he baked with a mixture of rye-flour, and used as bread. 

 " All the world," says Mr Laing, "of this and the next parish, flocked to the spot 

 to take their part of this extraordinary blessing of meal, produced in the earth at 

 a time when they were reduced to bark bread. The functionaries of the district 

 at last heard of it, and gave orders that it should not be used until they had as- 

 certained that it was safe. Some of it was sent to Stockholm to be analyzed." 

 Mr LAING has stated, in his Tour, that it was said to consist chiefly of finely pul- 

 verised flint and felspar, with a residuum of organised matter ; but the propor- 

 tions, or the regular analysis, he could not learn. 



Mr LAING procured specimens of this curious Berg^Meal ; and, on the return 

 of my friend and relative from his northern tour, he was so kind as put them into 

 my possession for examination, in the end of 1838. 



I soon ascertained that this substance really contained organic matter ; for, 

 when heated, it first became black at a red heat, exhaling a smell like a mixture 

 of vegetable and animal matter, and when the heat was increased, it burnt to 

 snowy whiteness. By exposing a portion of it to a red heat in a glass tube, I 

 found that it gave out ammonia in sufficient quantity to restore the colour of 

 litmus paper, reddened by weak acetic acid. 



Thus satisfied of the presence of animal matter in the Meal, I proceeded to 

 examine it with the microscope, and was surprised to find that it chiefly con- 

 sisted of organised bodies, of regular figures, which strongly resembled some of 

 the exuviae of Infusoria described by EHRENBERG. 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 6. Fig. 6. 



VOL. XV. PART I. 



