C 106 3 



Professor Cooper^s Ajialysis of various Specimens of 

 Pennsylvania Limestone. Cooper^s Emporium^ New 

 Series, vol. 1, page 318. 



Some time ago the honourable Richard Peters, of 

 Belmont, near Philadelphia, requested I would take the 

 trouble of analyzing some limestones, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the quantity of magnesia they might 

 contain. In England, the impression among scientific 

 men, in consequence of the experiments of Mr. Te- 

 nant, in Phil. Trans. 1790, are, that limestone contain- 

 ing a considerable quantity of magnesia, such as the 

 limestone of York, in Yorkshire ; Bredon, in Leices- 

 tershire ; Matlock, in Derbyshire, and some other pla- 

 ces, were unfavourable to agriculture. Mr. Tenant 

 found that seeds sown in earth, sprinkled with lime 

 made from calcareous limestone, vegetated very well, 

 and the lime operated favourably : but when sprinkled 

 with an equal quantity of lime, made from a stone that 

 contained two parts of magnesia to three of pure lime, 

 they did not vegetate. 



His experiments were made, evidently on secofidary 

 limestones containing magnesia ; and the stratum of 

 this kind of limestone he found superincumbent on the 

 purer calcareous stone ; and which in general he con- 

 siders as alluvial limestone, in reference to the strata 

 on v»7hich his experiments were made. 



Judge Peters transmitted to me, nine different spe- 

 cimens of limestone from Chester county, [and Mont- 

 gomery county] numbered and named as follows : 



