62 WniTINQS OF JAMES 8MIT1IS0N. 



Bubstaiico, in appearance similar to uliriin, ])ut on adding 

 water to thin dry inaHS, a larp^o (juantity of brown glutinous 

 matter remained inHolulde. The mixture lieing tlirown on 

 tt filter, a clear yellow li(iuor jjaBsed, which may have con- 

 tained nlmin, but the quantity was too small to admit of 

 satiHliictory conclusions. 



Perhaps older wood, tlie juice of which was more per- 

 fected, would afford other results, since ulmin appears to 

 bo the product of old trees; but the iiupiiry, being merely 

 collateral to the object 1 liad originally in view, was not 

 persevered in. 



ON A SALINE SUBSTANCE TROM MOUNT 

 VESUVIUS. 



Prom tho IMiiloHopliiciil TrniiBnctions of tlio lloyal Society of London, 

 Vol. CI J I, riirt 1, 1818, p. JJGO.— Kcud July 8, 1813. 



Tt has very long appeared to me, that wlicn tho earth is 

 considered with a(lenru)n, innumerable circumstances are 

 perceived, which cannot but load to (ho belief, that it has 

 once been in a state of general conllagration. Tho exist- 

 ence in tho skies of planelary bodies, which seem to be 

 actually burning, and tho appearances of original firo dis- 

 cernible on our globe, T have conceived to be mutually cor- 

 roborative of each other; and at the time when no answers 

 could bo given to tho most essential objections to tho 

 liypothesis, tho mass of facts in favour of it fully justified, 

 I thought, the inference that our habitation is an extinct 

 conict or sun. 



Tho mighty dilhculties which formerly assailed this 

 opinion, great modern discoveries have dissipated. Ac- 

 quainted now, that the bases of alkalies and earths are 

 metals, eminently oxydable, wo aro no longer embarrassed 



