200 Miscellanies, 



by mail (paying the postage to New York,) to Leiois Wm. Zimmern, at 

 the Blineralogical Institute, Heidelberg, Germany, and he will receive an 

 answer. Mr. Zimmern is connected with some of the first mercantile 

 houses in Europe, and he requested me to allow him to draw on Hotten- 

 guer & Co., in Paris. This I was enabled to do through the kindness 

 of the house of Prime, Ward & King, in New York ; and I have reason 

 to suppose that this firm would be willing to do the like favor to others, 

 charging only a very moderate commission. It is necessary only to for- 

 ward to that house the amount which Mr. Zimmern has liberty to draw 

 for. I give these details because they may save others, as little conver- 

 sant with pecuniary transactions as myself, several months delay, should 

 they wish to order collections from Heidelberg. 



I beg leave to say, that I have no pecuniary connection with the Hei- 

 delberg Institute, and make these statements only with a wish to have 

 such collections as can be obtained there, multiplied in our country, and 

 because I have abundant reason to believe, that the most perfect confi- 

 dence may be placed in the gentleman who has charge of that institution. 

 I have a few catalogues of his collection, which I should be happy to 

 send to any gentleman why may desire them. Respectfully, 



Edward Hitchcock. 



Amherst College, (Mass.) June 1, 1S40. _ 



28, Carhurettecl Hydrogen* — The students at West Town boarding 

 school, Chester Co., Penn., for want of a better place, bathe in a mill-pond 

 of very limited extent. Chester Creek, a mere brook, enters at the north- 

 ern extremity. The banks on all sides are covered with timber, from which 

 an abundance of leaves and decayed wood find their way into the pond. 

 Hence the great quantity of gas, that every person wading in the pond 

 must have noted. 



I first visited the place in the year 1834, and on noticing the gas, de- 

 termined to collect some for the purpose of examination. Taking as ap- 

 paratus a bell-glass furnished with a stop-cock, and a taper, and as com- 

 panion an assistant teacher in the school, (now assistant superintendant 

 at Harnford School,) we proceeded to the pond, readily filled the receiver, 

 and fired the gas issuing from the stop-cock. We next proposed to burn 

 the bubbles as they arose from the water. On stirring the leaves the gas 

 ascended in large quantities, affording an admirably successful experiment. 

 No sooner was the lighted taper brought near the surface of the water, 

 than we found ourselves enveloped in flames. To retreat was of course 

 the first impulse. Fire and water, though usually antagonist elements, 



* Providence, R. I., 5lh mo. 21st, 1840. 

 Prof. B. Silliman, — If any of the facts in the following extract from a lecture 

 delivered about a year ago, before the Providence Franklin Scciety, be deemed 

 worthy of a place in the " American Journal," &c,, they are at thy disposal. 



Thine respectfully, Moses B. Lockwood. 



