AMBER 75 



Suffolk coast near the great pebble beach of Orford- 

 ness. 



There are difificulties about using the word " amber " 

 with scientific precision. The fossil resins which pass 

 under this name in commerce, and are obtained in various 

 localities, including the Prussian mines on the Baltic, are 

 undoubtedly the product of several different kinds of 

 trees, and, from the strictly scientific chemical point of 

 view, they are mixtures in varying proportions of different 

 chemical substances. The merchant is content with a 

 certain hardness (which he tests with a penknife), 

 transparency, and colour, and also attaches great 

 importance to the test of burning a few fragments in a 

 spoon, when, if the material is to pass as " amber," it 

 should give an agreeable perfume. Scientifically speak- 

 ing, " amber " differs from other " resins," including 

 copal, in having a higher melting point, greater hard- 

 ness, slighter solubility in alcohol and in ether, and 

 in containing " succimc acid " as an important con- 

 stituent, which the other resins, even those most like it, 

 do not. True amber thus defined is called " succinite," 

 but several other resins accompany it even as found in 

 its classical locality — the Baltic shore of Prussia — and, 

 owing to their viscid condition before fossilization, may 

 have become mixed with it. One of these is called 

 " gedanite," and is used for ornamental purposes. It is 

 more brittle than amber, and contains no succinic acid. 

 It is usually clear and transparent, and of a pale wine- 

 yellow colour. 



It is not possible to be certain about the exact 

 nature of what appears to be a " piece of amber " thrown 

 up on the seashore, without chemical examination. A 

 year or two ago a friend brought to me a dark brownish- 



