370 
was first discovered in Finland in 1736. About the year 
1820, a quantity of it, then called ‘mountain tallow,’ was dis- 
covered on the borders of Loch Fyne, in Scotland, and was 
described in the ‘ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ vol. xi. 
“In 1817, a mass of this bog butter or tallow, weighing 
about 23 lbs., was discovered in a bog on the Galtee Moun- 
tains. In June, 1826, a tub, containing about 21 Ibs. weight 
of this substance, was found in a bog near Ballinasloe; it 
was presented to the Royal Dublin Society by Lord Dunlo, 
and was described by Professor Edmund Davy in the Proceed- 
ings of that body. Since then, very many specimens of this 
substance have been found; we possess three or four very fine 
samples in the Museum of the Academy; and other collec- 
tions, both public and private, contain several examples. It 
is almost always found in wood, either in vessels cut out ofa 
single piece, like large methers, or in long firkins, of which there 
is a good example in the Museum. So far as I can gather, 
the bog butter is always found at a great depth, ten or twelve 
feet, at least, in old, solid bogs. Whether the vessels were 
originally buried at that depth; whether they were placed 
nearer the surface, and in lapse of years sunk ; or whether the 
bogs have grown over them, are questions I cannot determine. 
How many years it would take to produce in tallow, suet,or 
butter, the remarkable change exhibited by all the specimens 
which have been discovered, is a question of much interest ; 
in connexion with which I may state the curious fact lately 
mentioned to me, that when the common fosses of Paris, into 
which a great number of bodies had been thrown in 1793, were 
opened a few years ago, it was found that the substance into 
which they had been converted was an adipocere somewhat 
resembling this bog butter. 
“In the ‘ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ to which I 
have alluded, will be found the first analysis of this substance 
that Iam aware of. Professor E. Davy made a very careful 
examination of it in 1826, the results of which are published 
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