I 



894 Mr. Johnston's Description and Analysis of Hatchetine, 



No. XXI. — Description and Analysis of a Variety of Hatchetine, found 

 in Urpeth Colliery, near Newcastle, by James F. W. Johnston, A. M. y 

 F. B. S. S. Lond. and Ed'., F. G. S., fyc. 



The attention of chemists and mineralogists has for several years past 

 been drawn to a species of fossil wax found in Moldavia * in sufficient quan- 

 tity to be employed for economical purposes, and to which the name of 

 Ozocerite has been given. This substance is of a brown colour, of various 

 shades, has the consistence and translucency of wax, a weak bituminous 

 odour, sometimes a foliated structure and conchoidal fracture, and can be 

 reduced to powder in a mortar. In burning, it emits conderable light, and 

 is said to be used for the manufacture of a species of candles. 



The chemical and physical properties of this substance were first exa- 

 mined by Magnus (An. de Chem. el de Phys., LV., p. 218,1 ; more lately 

 by Schrotter ( Bibliotheque Univ., May, 1836,1 ; and more recently by Ma- 

 laguti (An. de Chem., LXIIL, p. 390,) ; who agree in respresenting it as 

 a mixture of several substances, differing in their physical properties, yet 

 possessing the same ultimate chemical constitution. 



Combustible substances, analogous to the Ozocerite, have also been 

 found in other localities. Among these may be mentioned Hatchetine, oc- 

 curring at Merthyr Tydvil, in the ironstone of Shropshire, and elsewhere, 

 and Schererite, met with in Switzerland, in the fossil wood of a brown coal 

 formation, and in the peat mosses of Denmark ; but these substances have 

 hitherto been met with so sparingly, that their chemical characters have 

 been little studied.f 



The occurrence of a fossil body, possessing many of the characters of 



It is found, according to Dr. Meyer, at the foot of the Carpathians, near Slanlsh, be- 

 neath a bed of bituminous slate clay, in masses sometimes from 80 to lOOlbs. weight. Not 

 far from the locality are several layers of brown amber. 



-) Tromsdorf has lately described a substance, found in wood, from a peat bog, which 

 melts at 225° F., dissolves in boiling alchohol and ether, and consists of carbon 92-429, hy- 

 drogen 7-571, or 2 atoms carbon+1 atom hydrogen (Liebig's An. der Phar xxi.jo. 129^. 



