54 Clinton's introductory discourse. 



a sufficient quantity for our own use, but we now accommodate Penn- 

 sylvania with from ten thousand to fifteen thousand tons of this invalu- 

 able manure. The state would have been in a truly enviable situation, 

 if correspondent discoveries of coal mines had been made; and the 

 recent refusal of the legislature to promote this important object is 

 seriously to bejregretted. 



The medicinal and mineral springs with which this state abounds are 

 deserving of further investigation. The springs in Saratoga county are 

 unrivalled for salubrity; others exist in different places, which have 

 beneficial effects upon health. There are sulphur springs in Otsego, 

 Cayuga, and Ontario counties; and it remains yet to be determined 

 whether great quantities of sulphur msfy not be obtained from them. 

 There is a bituminous spring in Alleghany county, whence the 

 famous Seneka oil is obtained. In Purchas' Pilgrims it is stated, that 

 " near unto Buchan in Persia is a very strange and wonderful fountain 

 under ground, out of which there springeth and issueth a marvellous 

 quantity of black oil which serveth all parts of Persia to burn in their 

 houses."* It is also used in that country for lighting streets, and in its 

 purest forms is called naptha. At Amiano, in Italy, the petroleum of a 

 spring, discovered within a few years, is also employed to light their 

 cities. It might be of considerable consequence to discover whether 

 the petroleum of our springs might not be used for like beneficial 

 purposes.! 



** Homo naturae minister et interpres." Man is the minister and 

 interpreter of nature, said a great philosopher ;J and he ought unques- 

 tionably to commence the study of the important science of nature by 



; Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. 2. p. 1431. f See Note K. t Bacon's Novum Organum. 



