1882. 109 Trans; No Vi AsStz. 
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 formule 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 percent. Like all organic matter, 
this has been formed under the influence of the vital force, in antagon- 
ism to the affinities 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—vreszdual 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 ending with the ash or inorganic portion 
left when the organic matter is distilled away, each group showing 
