1 883. 109 Trans. N. V. Ac. Set, 



THE ORIGIN AND RELATIONS Of THE CARBON MINERALS. 



The following is a brief synopsis of the paper, which will appear in 

 full in the Annals of the Academy : 



(Abstract.) 



1. The so-called "carbon minerals," peat, lignite, coal, anthracite, 

 graphite, petroleum, etc., are not, properly speaking, minerals, as they 

 are without definite chemical formula? or crystalline forms. They are 

 groups of organic substances, vegetable or animal, the products of 

 progressive changes incident to their nature and reaching their inevita- 

 ble end in complete oxidation. 



2. The principal source from which these substances are derived is 

 vegetable fibre, which consists of organic tissue with a variable quan- 

 tity of inorganic matter woven into its composition, which remains 

 after oxidation, and is called ash. The organic portion consists, in 

 round numbers, of carbon fifty per cent, oxygen forty-two per cent* 

 hydrogen six per cent, nitrogen two per cent. Like all organic matter, 

 this has been formed under the influence of the vital force, in antagon- 

 ism to the afifinities of inorganic chemistry ; and when abandoned by 

 this creative and conservative force, it is necessarily, though more or 

 less slowly, oxidized. When very rapid, this change is called combus- 

 tion ; when less rapid, decay ; and when operating very slowly, it be- 

 comes a kind of distillation, in which the constituents react upon each 

 other, forming definite or indefinite compounds that retain the solid 

 state or assume liquid or gaseous conditions. In the progress of this 

 change to complete oxidation, an equal amount of force is evolved with 

 that absorbed in the growth of the organic structure. By controlling 

 the exhibition of this force, we utilize it in the form of heat, light, 

 motive power, etc. 



3. The changes which take place in organic tissue result in the 

 formation of two classes of products — residual and evolved. The 

 residual products of the spontaneous distillation of wood-tissue are 

 solids, which are grouped under the conventional and undefinable 

 names of peat, lignite, bituminous coal, semi-bituminous coal, anthra- 

 cite, graphitic anthracite, and graphite. The evolved products are 

 carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and numerous hydrocarbon and nitro- 

 genous gases, and the liquids water and petroleums. From the latter, 

 by a kind of spontaneous distillation, are derived non-oxidized solids, 

 paraffine, ozokerite, etc., and oxidized solids, asphalts. From these 

 last are derived asphaltic coals, Grahamite, Albertite, etc. 



4. The residual products are portions of a continuous series, begin- 

 ning with wood-tissue and endmg with the ash or inorganic portion 

 ieft when the organic matter is distilled away, each group showing 



