240 Report on two specimens of Cuttack Coal. [No. 3. 



all diseases is the small-pox. The people fly the infection, leaving 

 their homes in the most inclement weather. Inoculation is regu- 

 larly performed annually in the warmer seasons. Two methods are 

 in use, one by incisions on the wrist, the other is effected by in- 

 halation. A plug of cotton which has been impregnated with small- 

 pox virus and dried is introduced into the nose and left there for 

 two or three days, at the end of which the symptoms of the small- 

 pox appear. This method was introduced from China where it is 

 largely practised. Dropsy is rather a common disease, and is gene- 

 rally fatal in the cold season. There is very little Eheumatism in 

 Thibet proper ; at Bakchan in Choombi it prevails to a very great 

 extent. There is a malady called the " Laughing disease" which is 

 much dreaded, people die of it. It consists of violent fits of laugh- 

 ing with excruciating pain in the fauces and throat, men and women 

 have it alike and is named " Joomtook" in the language of the 

 country. It frequently proves fatal in a few days, but is not accom- 

 panied with fever. 



Meport on two specimens of Cuttack Coal from the Talcheer Mines 

 forwarded by E. A. Samuells, Esq., Commissioner of Cuttack. 

 By H. PiDDi^GTON, Esq. Curator Museum Economic Geology. 



Upon examining the specimens of coal, I find that they are wholly 

 shale, and what is called Top coal, that is coal from the upper and 

 generally inferior beds of a mine. 



The shale it is useless to describe, being worthless. 



The coal (Top Coal) varies much, some of it being composed of 

 layers in which there are about equal parts of layers of shale of a 

 dull black and of good bright bituminous coal. In other bits, the 

 bituminous coal greatly predominates, and gives good promise that 

 at a moderate depth, a really good coal might be met with. We can 

 say nothing as to what the quantity might be. 



The bituminous coal is a bright black glance coal, easily separat- 

 ing into flat sharp rhomboidal fragments in the layers, which in the 

 forceps do not melt or flame, but shoot into singular ramifications 

 which glow for a considerable time : the smell is that of good bitu- 

 minous coal. It will not coke at all. 



