452 Appendix. 



served petroleum coming from a peat bed at Down Holland, near 

 Ormskirk. This is a mistake. Dr. Lyon Playfair's statement is 

 correct that he received the account of the flow of petroleum in 

 a coalfield belonging to his brother-in-law, Mr. Oakes, at Alfreton, 

 in Derbyshire, and told Mr. Young of it. That has long been in 

 print and well known, and it is strange that whilst the actors are 

 still living a new story should turn up. Mr. Binney was a friend 

 of Young's, and was taken to see the spring, but not till after it was 

 actually being utilised. When it was exhausted after about two 

 years, a new source was looked for, but even then Mr. Binney did 

 not assist, as the Boghead cannel was shown to Mr. Young by Mr. 

 Bartholomew, then manager of the City and Suburban Gasworks, 

 Glasgow, and now, if not then, a coal-owner in Scotland. This 

 evidence was given at a trial in Edinburgh, was never questioned, 

 but other notions have quietly intruded themselves. 



Mr. Binney's opinions on coal and peat were taken up as Mr. 

 Bowman left them, and the difference may be judged by the follow- 

 ing quotations. 



Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society ', Vol. I., p. 92. 

 On the Origin of Coal; and the Geological Conditions under 

 which it was produced. By J. E. Bowman , F.G.S. and F.L.S. 

 Read January 30, 1840. 



1 . . . . But the experiments of Dr. MacCulloch following 

 those of Hatchett and other previous investigators, have since so 

 satisfactorily proved its vegetable origin, that I shall only need to 

 touch briefly on this division of my subject. 



1 In the ordinary process of vegetable putrefaction and destruc- 

 tion, a variety of compound gases are formed by the reaction of 

 their elements, and carbon alone, or rather carbon united to a 

 portion of hydrogen, remains behind. The experiments thus 

 alluded to are in perfect harmony with this natural process, and 

 have proved the following facts: That all vegetables, including 

 wood, are chiefly composed of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon ; 

 that in peat, which is the first or incipient stage of their decay 

 produced by the action of water, the two latter elements form a 

 hydro -carbonaceous compound, which communicates its brown 



