162 
He contends, that the meaning of Theophrastus is evidently, 
that they kindle and hum like wood coals, or, as we call it, charcoal ; 
that being, he remarks, the genuine and determinate sense of the 
word ccv&fiui in the other works of this author, in those of Pliny, 
and of all the other old naturalists. Even the more correct of the 
moderns, when they would express what we call pit coal, the sub- 
stance which he contends is here described by this author, never 
use the words or carho alone, but always carbo-fossilis, and 
Another passage of the same author seems also evidently to apply 
to coals : he relates, that some of the more brittle stones become as 
it were burning coals, when put into fire, and continue so a long 
, time. Of this kind are those about Bena, a town in Thracia ; found 
in mines, and washed down by the torrents ; for they will take fire 
on throwing burning coals on them, and continue burning so long as 
any one blows on them : afterwards they will deaden, and may after 
that be made to burn again : they are therefore of long continuance, 
but their smell is troublesome and disagreeable*'. 
Unless it be admitted that coals were known to Theophrastus, 
according to the opinion of Sir John Hill, we may, I believe, 
assert, that we have no proof of their having been known to the 
Greeks, or to the early Romans. The Latin does not even possess 
a name for this substance. Nor indeed is it to be wondered at 
that they should be thus ignorant of it, if, as is observed by the 
learned writers of the Encyclopasdia Britannica, there are, in fact, 
no beds of it in the compass of Italy ; the great line of that fuel 
seeming to sweep away round the globe, from north-east to south- 
west ; not ranging at a distance even from the south-easterly parts 
of our island, as is generally imagined, but actually visiting Bra- 
bant and France, and yet avoiding Italy. It has been inferred 
* Theophrastus on Stones, p. 53. 
