370 
was first discovered in Finland in 1736. About the year 
1820, a quantity of it, then called ‘ mountain tallow,’ was dis- 
covered on the borders of Loch Fyne, in Scotland, and was 
described in the ‘ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ vol. xi. 
“In 1817, a mass of this bog butter or tallow, weighing 
about 23 lbs., was discovered in a bog on the Galtee Moun- 
tains. In June, 1826, a tub, containing about 21 lbs. weight 
of this substance, was found in a bog near Ballinasloe; it 
was presented to the Royal Dublin Society by Lord Dunlo, 
and was described by Professor Edmund Davy in the Proceed- 
ings of that body. Since then, very many specimens of this 
substance have been found; we possess three or four very fine 
samples in the Museum of the Academy; and other collec- 
tions, both public and private, contain several examples. It 
is almost always found in wood, either in vessels cut out of a 
single piece, like large methers, or in long firkins, of which there 
is a good example in the Museum. So far as I can gather, 
the bog butter is always found at a great depth, ten or twelve 
feet, at least, in old, solid bogs. Whether the vessels were 
originally buried at that depth; whether they were placed 
nearer the surface, and in lapse of years sunk; or whether the 
bogs have grown over them, are questions I cannot determine. 
How many years it would take to produce in tallow, suet,or 
butter, the remarkable change exhibited by all the specimens 
which have been discovered, is a question of much interest 5 
in connexion with which I may state the curious fact lately 
mentioned to me, that when the common fosses of Paris, into 
which a great number of bodies had been thrown in 1793, were 
opened a few years ago, it was found that the substance into 
which they had been converted was an adipocere somewhat 
resembling this bog butter. 
“In the ‘ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ to which I 
have alluded, will be found the first analysis of this substance 
that I am aware of. Professor E. Davy made a very careful 
examination of it in 1826, the results of which are published 
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