Report on the Geological Survey of Connecticut. — 151 
cess of boiled linseed oil, were placed on a straw-bottomed chair, 
under a window, and at midnight they inflamed.* 
A heap of horse manure inflamed in the month of May, 1822, 
at Sharon, in Connecticut. The fire was two feet in circumference. 
American Journal of Science, vol. v, p. 201.+ 
Arr. XVI.— Notice of “A Report on the Geological Survey of 
the State of Connecticut ; by Prof. Cuartes UpHam Suepanp, 
M.D., &c. &c.”—with extracts and remarks, by the Eprror. 
In consequence of a recommendation by his excellency Gov. 
Edwards, the Legislature of Connecticut, in May, 1835, resolved— 
that the Governor be, and he is hereby authorized to appoint a com- 
mittee of suitable persons to make a geological survey of the State 
of Connecticut, and to report the same to the General Assembly at 
their May session of 1836. In consequence of this resolution, the 
Governor appointed Dr. James G. Percival and Prof. Charles U. 
Shepard to make and report on the proposed examination. 
These gentlemen having divided the labor, Mr. Shepard has re- 
ported on the economical mineral resources, and on the scientific 
mineralogy of the State. : 
Dr. Percival’s report on the geology, is, by permission of the 
legislature, deferred another year, that he may have time to finish 
his work. — 
It is impossible for any competent judge of the matter to peruse 
Mr. Shepard’s report without being convinced that he has brought 
to the task all the industry, perseverance, and science that were 
demanded, and that he has been particularly attentive to the practi- 
cal interests of the community. The result of this examination, as 
far as it is completed, does much honor to those who recommended, 
and to those who executed it, and we shall now give an analysis of 
the report of Professor Shepard, with copious extracts, since the 
* His theory of this is as follows: “In all cases where the oxygen of the atmos- 
phere is rapidly attracted and absorbed, the caloric, which serves as a base to the 
oxygen, giving it the qualities of gas, or elastic properties, is disengaged in such 
abundance, that if the absorbing bodies are susceptible of taking fire, or if com- 
bustible bodies are in the neighborhood, a spontaneous inflammation will take 
place.” —Annales de Chimie, No.144. Tulloch, Vol. 18. 
+ It appeared subsequently, that this case of supposed spontaneous combustion 
was the work of an incendiary; the communication of both facts was from the 
same person, a respectable physician.—Editor. 
