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quantity, the flame being best smothered by clay, earth, dust, or 
any such dry substances. From its so readily taking fire, it was 
used, in many places, instead of oil, for the supply of lamps. Thus 
it was employed in Sicily, being found in the plain of Agrigentum, 
whence it was called Sicilian oil. It was also found, he says, near 
Soli, in Cilicia; near Babylon; at Ecbatania, in Ethiopia; and in 
various parts of India. The common people of Saxony employed it, 
Agricola also tells us, not only in their lamps ; but made with it 
nuptial torches, by dipping into it the dried stalks of torch-weed, or 
mullein. They also employed it to their carriage -wheels ; to defend 
different articles of iron and copper from rust; and to protect 
wooden posts from the injuries of the weather ; and, for the same 
purpose, statues were sometimes covered with it. 
Alexander, it is said, for the sake of experiment, set fire to the 
naphtha, with which he had ordered the body of a boy to be co- 
vered, by which the youth was extremely burnt ; so that he must 
have perished, if the attendants had not, by pouring over him large 
quantities of water, overpowered the flame, and thereby saved him. 
We are informed by Valerius Cordus* that in the plains of 
Brunswick, bitumen is dug in a moderately hard state; and that 
there also, bitumen, fluid as oil, runs into pits, hollowed out for the 
purpose ; the country people adopting it for the uses already mentioned. 
Bitumen, he observes, is also found in the Alps of Switzerland. 
He also relates, that a hard black bitumen is found, most co- 
piously, in a certain hill, in the way from Falkenburg to the village 
of Sattela. The best, however, is found about Sattela, and in the 
/'village itself. 
Yours, &c. 
* Valerii Cordi Observationes qusedam Rerum naturalium variarura, &c. mclxi 
VOL. I. T 
