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Vol. 6 CHARLESTON, S. C, MARCH, 1910 No. 3 



EXHIBITS AT THE MUSEUfl 



The Carbon Collection 



There have just been installed in the main hall of the Museum 

 some special exhibits from the department of mineralogy and 

 geology. Professor Martin has been largely occupied hereto- 

 fore in classifying and cataloging the numerous additions 

 made by himself and by others to the general collections of that 

 department. But this work is now so far advanced that some 

 public exhibits can be arranged and displayed. Among these 

 are some that have relation to certain particular groups which 

 possess practical importance. The one to be installed first is 

 a selected series of the carbon minerals, designed to show the 

 gradual formation of the various forms of coal and kindred 

 substances from vegetable matter. Such an exhibit is of great 

 interest, though it is but rarely shown in collections, at least 

 in a form that is readily intelligible to the ordinary visitor or 

 student. 



That coal is formed from vegetable matter, is a fact generally 

 stated and admitted, but the evidence is not often clearly to be 

 seen. The object of this collection is to present that evidence 

 in a form such that "he who runs may read." Vegetable 

 matter, when dead, decays by the action of the air — that is, it 

 is oxidized into gaseous compounds that pass away and leave 



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