vegetable and animal substances. 471 
Although the experiments on amber were conducted care- 
fully with re-trituration and re-ignition, no good atomic con- 
figuration of it has occurred to me. It approaches to 10 
carbon +10 hydrogen 10 hydrogen -f- 2 oxygen. 
Wax is apparently composed of 
Carbon 
13 atoms 
• 9*75 • 
d 
00 
Hydrogen 
11 . 
• 1.375 • 
. 11.3 
Oxygen 
1 
. 1.000 . 
. 8.3 
12.125 
100.0 
or in other words, of 11 atoms olefiant gas -f- 1 atom car- 
bonic oxide + 1 atom carbon. Had the experiment given a 
very little more hydrogen, we should have had wax as con- 
sisting of 12 atoms olefiant gas -{- 1 atom carbonic oxide. 
This is possibly the true constitution. 
Caoutchouc seems to consist of 
Carbon 3 atoms . . 2.25 . . 90 
Hydrogen 2 . . 0.25 . . 10 
2.50 100 
Or it is a sesqui-carburetted hydrogen. The oxygen de- 
duced from experiment is in such small quantity, as to leave 
a doubt whether it be essential to this body, or imbibed in 
minute quantity from the air during its consolidation. 
Splent or slate coal, specific gravity 1.266, abstracting its 
incombustible ashes, approaches in constitution, to 
Carbon 7 atoms . . 5.25 . . 70.00 
Hydrogen 3 . . 0.375 . . 3.40 
Oxygen 2 — . . 2.000 . . 26. 6 
7.625 
100.0 
