1882.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



213 



rence and their diversity in form. 1 



C. — The so-called soot shows both 

 in vertical and horizontal section no 

 essential difference. The substance 

 is found in any good section, forming 

 reticular and angular tissues always 

 •composed of the same untransparent 

 substance, but extremely variable in 

 size and shape of the meshes. In a 

 single microscopical section we can 

 meet in many places with four or five 

 tissues, different in size and shape of 

 the meshes, and filling up a space of 

 at most yV ^^^t^- in diameter, so clo- 

 sely attached that we find no traces 

 of any difference between two neigh- 

 bouring particles. From the mode 

 of succession and of the connection 

 of the different tissues the experien- 

 ced observer of living vegetable tis- 

 sues is compelled to admit that all 

 those different tissues must have been 

 in a state of genetical and morpholo- 

 gical connection, and to deny any 

 fragmentary composition of the sub- 

 stance. The true nature of the sub- 

 stance is clearly seen in the case of 

 immediate contact with various adja- 

 cent substances. 



The grammitoid substance* is 

 found pentrating in a filamentous 

 form. The filaments are spread out 

 within the zone of contact, and all 

 through the substance, without be- 

 coming mixed up with it, and the 

 substance is easy to distinguish, from 

 its angular structure and from the 

 fact that it is still untransparent even 

 in sections of Y^ Q - g^ Q- mm. thickness. 

 Very often the reticular and angular 

 tissue in part is found transmuted 

 into a compact and structureless mass 

 of sulphuret of iron. The nature of 

 the substance is as dark as the sub- 

 stance itself. 



Neither in the anatomical structure 

 of those vascular plants the woody 

 fibre of v/hich might have furnished 

 the material (calamites and other 

 vascular cryptogams growing on the 

 borders and the surface of the car- 



* I described the various varieties of this 

 substance in my book on coal under the col- 

 lective name " Grammitoid substances." 



bon continent) nor in plants of our 

 recent flora, do we meet with analo- 

 gies in structure and general morpho- 

 logical nature. In most cases, and 

 in good microscopical sections, after 

 having carefully compared a great 

 many specimens in respect to the 

 morphological relations and the 

 relations of other substances which 

 are without doubt organic, we arrive 

 at the conclusion that the grammitoid 

 substance must be a peculiar one pro- 

 duced by some process independent 

 of active mechanical forces and me- 

 chanical accumulation, and that the 

 present morphological condition in 

 which we meet with the substance in 

 the coal bed must be, in most cases, 

 the same which prevailed during the 

 time of the organic life of the sub- 

 stance. ********* 

 Small beds of grammitoid substance 

 from I to 3 centimetres in height are 

 met with in each larger coal bed. * 

 * * * D.— The reddish brown, 

 hard, slaty matter, which is an essen- 

 tial constituent of coal, in vertical 

 and horizontal sections proves to be 

 composed mostly of a great many 

 substances, very different in color, 

 size, shape, and histological charac- 

 ter. There are observed over twenty 

 different bodies, each one of these 

 bodies bearing the character of a typi- 

 cal being, with constant marks of 

 structure and size. All these bodies 

 are distinguished from the other con- 

 stituents of coal by an intensely 

 bright color ranging from brilliant 

 gold-yellow to dark purple. The his- 

 tological structure is, as far as can 

 be seen, invariable for the single 

 types, and any specimen found in the 

 layers of other substances can easily 

 be indentified. Most of these bodies 

 are widely dispersed throughout the 

 carbon coal, though their absolute 

 amount is less (5 to 7 per cent). In 

 any microscopical section of carbon 

 coal we can meet with isolated speci- 

 mens. Some of these bodies are 

 found through all coal beds of the 

 productive carbon, sometimes in- 

 closed in the interspersed layers of 



