200 Miscellanies. 
by mail (paying. the postage to New York,) to Lewis Wm. Zimmern, at 
the Mineralogical Institute, Heidelberg, Germany, and he will receive an 
answer. Mr. Zimmern is connected with some of the first mercantile 
houses in Europe, and he requested me to allow him to draw on Hotten- 
guer & Co., in Paris. This I was enabled to do through the kindness 
of the house of Prime, Ward & King, in New York; and I have reason 
to suppose that this firm would be willing to do the like favor to others, 
charging only a very moderate commission. It is necessary only to for- 
ward to that house the amount which Mr. Zimmern has liberty to draw 
for. I give these details because they may save others, as little conver- 
sant with pecuniary transactions as myself, several months delay, should 
they wish to order collections from Heidelberg. 
I beg leave to say, that I have no pecuniary connection with the Hel- 
delberg Institute, and make these statements only with a wish to have 
such collections as can be obtained there, multiplied in our country, and 
because I have abundant reason to believe, that the most perfect confi- 
dence may be placed in the gentleman who has charge of that institution. 
‘T have a few catalogues of his collection, which I should be happy to 
send to any gentleman why may desire therti Respectfully, ~ 
EDWARD Hircncock: 
Amherst College, (Mass.) June 1, 1840. 
28. Carburetted Hydrogen.*—The students at West Town boarding 
school, Chester Co., Penn., for want of a better place, bathe in a mill-pon 
of very limited extent. Chester Creek, a mere brook, enters at the north- 
-erextremity. The bankson all sides are covered with timber, from which 
-an abundance of leaves and decayed wood find their way into the po 
Hence the great = of gas, that eeeey ro wading in the pond 
must have noted. 
I first visited the phase | in the year 1834, and on noticing the gas, de- 
termined to collect some for the purpose of examination. Taking as ap- 
paratus a bell-glass furnished with a stop-cock, and a taper, and as com- 
panion an assistant teacher in the school, (now assistant superintendant 
at Harnford School,) we proceeded to the pond, readily filled the receiver, 
and fired the gas issuing from the stop-cock. We next proposed to burn 
the bubbles as they arose from the water. On stirring the leaves the gas 
» ascended in large quantities, affording an admirably successful experiment. 
No sooner was the lighted taper = near the surface of the water, 
-than we soe ourselves enveloped in flames. To retreat was 0 
the first ir Fire and water, though usually antagonist elements, 
ie S78 
: * Providence, R. I., 5th mo. 2st, 1940. 
. oe any of the set in the following extract from a lecture 
bout go, befor rovidence Franklin Society, be deemed 
eri urnal,” &c. Geen TEE 8 
Thine slnpataeiy. Moses B. Locawall 
