CHEMISTRY OF A PINT OF KEROSENE. 51 



verted into nitre-benzole, and thence into dye 

 colors. The liquid physically resembles that re- 

 sulting from the distillation of coal ; but, chemi- 

 cally, it widely differs. Creosote and carbolic acid 

 possess remarkable antiseptic or preserving proper- 

 ties. Putrefactive change in organized bodies is 

 instantly arrested by the presence of carbolic acid ; 

 and hence, this newly discovered agent promises to 

 be of the highest importance to the human family. 

 Perhaps no one of the results of the chemical 

 manipulation of soft coals is more striking, or 

 awakens greater wonder in the popular mind, than 

 the production of that beautiful, snowy white sub- 

 stance, used so largely in the manufacture of can- 

 dles, paraffine. Naphthaline is still more beauti- 

 ful. It is produced in the form of scales or crystals, 

 and resembles the pearl or opal in color or appear- 

 ance. How bodies physically so dissimilar can 

 come from black, dirty coals, is a fact almost incom- 

 prehensible to those unacquainted with technical 

 chemistry ; and, indeed, we cannot wonder it is so. 

 When the farmer is told that the chemist is able to 

 change not only a lump of coal, but the moist, black 

 " peat " from his meadow, into oil or candles adapted 

 to light his dwelling, he is perhaps ready to admit 

 the truthfulness of the statement ; but how so strange 

 a transmutation is effected is a problem deeply 

 puzzling. 



