r 



438 . Sciejitiji^ 



be •bfervable if there be any connexion between the source of this 

 foelidity and that produced by ozonizing agents. 



It is long since it occurred lo me, that as the phenomena of light, un- 

 der all the various hues which it is capable of producing, are ascribed 

 to the undulaiory affeciions of an elher pervading the universe ; so the 

 still greater variety of odors which influence our olfactory nerves, may 

 be due to vibratory agitation of the same medium. -; , 



Consistently it may be conceived ihat the odor produced during 

 ozonificalloQ, during the attrition of quartz, is due to an, odoriferous 

 etherial agitation. 



4t 



II. Botany and Zoology 



1. Note hnthe Vegetation of the Coal Period ; by Mr. J. E. Tesche- 

 MACHER, (communicated for this Journal.) — In 1843 my attention was 

 first attracted to the remains of vegetables in the anthracite coal from 

 Pennsylvania; by the year 1846 my collection of specimens was v^ry 

 numerous, and in 1847 I exhibited a small portion of them before the 

 American Society for the Advancement of Science, at their annual meet- 

 ing in Boston. 



. In 1846, the Natural Hist. Soc. of Haarlem, in Holland, adjudged a r 



prize to Dr. H. R. Gceppert, professor in the University of Breslau, for 

 a most elaborate and wet! written dissertation in reply to the prize ques- 

 tion proposed by them, 



•' Whether the beds of coal were composed of plants which grew on 

 the spots where these coal beds now exist, or whether the vegetation 

 grew in other places, and was floated or brought there by other means." 



This dissertation, with between 30 and 40 plates, was published at 

 Haarlem in 1848, and has been recently added to the library of the 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. of Boston, from the funds left by James Lloyd which 

 were in the possession of the Republican Institution, and were gener- 

 ously devoted by the members, lo the diffusion of science, by the pre- 

 sentation thereof to the Nat. Hist, Soc. for the purchase of the most re- 

 cent sterling works in its several departments. 



From this masterly dissertation it appears that Dr. Goeppert, for the 

 purpose of elucidating this subject, had been pursuing the same course 

 with the coal from various beds in Germany, as I had with those of 

 Pennsylvania. And although the main question has received the same 

 solution from both, namely, that the plants grew where the beds of coal 



DOW exist, and were solidified amongst otber conditions under that of 

 absolute rest, yet upon some minor points we differ, and I believe that 

 the extent of the beds from which my specimens have been taken, has 

 afforded much more varied appearances than have as yet met his eye. 



I should not attempt by any discussion at present to alter the views of 

 Dr. Goeppert, unless I could exhibit to him my specimens, for many of 

 my impressions were at first nearly the same as those he has expressed ; 

 and it was only by the reiterated and close examinations of fresh speci- 

 mens that I was led step by step to change my opinions. In fact, with- 

 out the inspection of regular series of specimens, presenting various 

 details, it is impossible to arrive at satisfactory conclusions on many 

 points of this occult subject, and it has several limes occurred that a 



f^ 



