Natural History. 235 
if oxalic acid, it tastes very sour; if Epsom salt, very bitter and 
saline. 
Many restrictions have been suggested upon the sale of arse- 
nic; the only effectual bar to the mischief that results from it, 
is prohibition. It is of no use in medicine, and should there- 
fore be rejected from the pharmacopeeia. Apothecaries and 
druggists need not then keep it. It is sometimes employed as 
an instrument of research, in the chemical laboratory, which 
might be sufficiently supplied through other channels. 
15. Analysis of the Resin Elemi.—This substance, the pro- 
duce of the Amyris Elemifera, (Linn.), has been carefully ex- 
amined by M. Bonastre; it is imported in considerable masses 
from America, packed in chests lined with tin plate; it has an 
acrid taste, and an odour partaking both of camphor and lemon. 
It affords of 
Clear resin, soluble in cold alcohol. . . . 60.00 
White opaque matter, soluble in boiling alcohol, 24.00 
Volatile oil (distilled over) . . . . - . 12.50 
Bitter extractive matter . .. . :. .. 2.00 
TRDUTINIES nie, $y sky =. a tiuehonSonntan BO Re okewe ee. 
100. 
Elemi is sometimes adulterated with the resin of the pinus aus+ 
tralis, which is easily recognised by its entire solubility in cold 
alcohol.—(Journ. de Pharmacie, Aug. 1822.) 
Ill. Naturat History. 
1. Beds of Lignite in Russia.—Professor Kounizin has ob- 
served, in the government of Novogorod and Twer, extensive 
strata of fossilized wood, parallel to the horizon. All the trees 
have their summits directed towards the same quarter, and 
they are merely inclined. They are placed with their 
roots, in the spot where they vegetated. The earth which 
covers them is partly sand, partly clay, and it is sometimes six 
and a half feet thick. In moist clayey soils the trees are best 
preserved, and are sometimes petrified. It is a remarkable 
fact, that oaks are there found, in a country, where none grow 
at present ; a country cleared of trees from time immemorial. 
The tops of the trees are turned towards the south-east and 
south-west; consequently, the force which overturned them 
must have acted in a southerly direction. Beds of this fossil- 
wood are to be met with in the whole of Northern Russia. 
