CHAP, xv THE ORIGIN OF AMBER 209 



the reputation so long held of the medicinal virtues of 

 amber. 1 



In 1748 Fothergill submitted to the Royal Society an 

 Account of Observations and Experiments made in Siberia. 

 He had drawn this up originally for his own use, from the 

 preface to Gmelin's report of the exploration of that country 

 during the years 1733 to 1742. Siberia was then little known : 

 it had been conquered by the Cossacks in the preceding 

 century ; and the Russian professor's description of its vast 

 extent, its great rivers and lakes, its high plains and fruitful 

 valleys, its plants and minerals, was new to the world. The 

 reviewer dwells in some detail upon the altitude of different 

 parts above sea-level, and upon the extreme cold : at Yakutsk 

 it was found that the earth was thawed to a depth of only 

 about 4 feet in the height of summer. 2 



Fothergill became too busy in other ways to continue 

 such records, but although he could not follow out all 

 the pursuits that his soul loved, he still took his pastime 

 in the study of science. He early interested himself in 

 fossils and other minerals ; he sought for them on the 

 seashore or among the hills, and stirred up his friends 

 also to gather them ; so that in course of time he acquired 

 many rare specimens. 



About 1762 he bought at auction a series of the papers 

 of Dr. Martin Lister, a pioneer in more than one natural 

 science, and author, with his daughters, of the first scientific 

 work on Shells. 3 The papers had been thrown aside for 



1 Phil. Trans, xliii. 21 ; Works, i. 251 ; Letter in MSS. Alston. Another 

 letter of FothergilPs dated 1746, in the author's possession, gives an account 

 of Jet, and its distinction from amber, and from cannel-coal. He had observed 

 veins of jet in the strata of the cliffs near Scarborough, and, as these dipped 

 under the sea, the casting up of pieces of jet by the waves was, he thought, 

 readily explained. Thomas Story, too, found leisure from his diligent ministerial 

 labours to meditate on the Scarborough cliffs to some purpose. The earth, 

 he believed, was of a much older date than that assigned to it in the holy 

 scriptures as commonly understood. He had, too, a hypothesis, which he 

 discussed with Fothergill, that all inert matter was, in its origin, animated, 

 consisting of innumerable animalcule. Letter to James Logan, 1738 ; see 

 W. Armistead, Mem. J. Logan, 1851, p. 156. 



2 Phil. Trans, xlv. 248 ; Works, i. 317. MSS. from Fothergill's papers, 

 on Iceland (by Banks and Solander) and on Forest Trees in Etna (by Captain 

 Bryden), are in Fds. Ref. Lib. 



3 Martin Lister, M.D., F.R.S. (died 1712), was a physician at York and 

 later in London, and was the author of Historia Conchyliorum, etc. The 

 orchid Listera was named after him. A copy of his Exercitatio Anatomica de 

 Cochleis Terrestribus was found after Fothergill's death annotated and enlarged 

 by him in readiness for a further impression. Lond. Med. Journ. iv. 189 n. 



