On the Anthracites of Europe and America. 75 
ArT. IX.—Remarks on the Anthraciies of pes, and 
America ; $2 WiciiAM Meapg, M.D. & 
* TO THE EDITOR. 
- Sir,—I have perused, with much pleasure, your remarks, 
in the last number of the Journal, on the properties and eco- 
nomical uses of the Rhode-Island coal; they are such as . 
must convince the most prejudiced readers, that the anthra- 
cites of this country have more valuable properties oan ma- 
ny are willing to allow them. I confess, it was with some de- 
gree of surprise that I heard of the quantity of infleminable 
gas which you obtained from this coal; and though your ex- 
planation of the fact is perfectly satisfactory, as acroumiitg 
for its production by the decomposition of the water with 
which it is mechanically or chemically combined ; ae may it 
not partly arise from a small quantity of bitumen, with which 
the coal is impregnated, and which would also account for 
the lambent flame which is perceptible when it is burning. 
From some late experiments made by the Hon. Mr. Knox, 
he has ascertained that bitumen exists in many fossi 
it never was before suspected ; and he has proved 1 this by ex- 
tracting it, by distillation, from the Newry pitch stone, onde even 
from minerals which are component parts of primitive rocks. 
Your remarks on the proper method of burning this coal, are 
so judicious, that I have little to add on this subject; but as you 
allude to an essay of mine, published in Boston many years ago, 
onthe Rhode-Island coal, and express a wish for any addition- 
al information I I poseets on the same subject, I take the Hey 
of making a ‘ tions tof fi 
wary and experince These are perfec ectly at your service, 
All mineralogical writers, * shat I have ever consulted, give 
avery vague and imper rfect t description of the real an- 
thracite coal. They frequently confound it with a pert in- 
i ies of coal, found in some parts of England and: 
Wales, to which it has no resemblance. It appears to me 
that the geological character of the anthracite is alone suffi- 
cient to distinguish it from any other, and this is particularly 
illustrated in America, where, though it is found so exten- 
sively, it never has been traced as associated with any other 
