213 
water, has suffered a change into adipocire. This opinion, I think, 
is rather countenanced by the instances which occur, in the writings 
of those who have described the peat pits of various parts of the 
world, of the existence of animal remains in these subterranean 
situations. 
Thus Dr. Leigh, in his history of Cheshire, relates, that he saw, 
five yards within the marie, the skeleton of a buck, as standing 
upon his feet, with the horns on his head, which, the Doctor says, 
at the time of his writing, were preserved at Ellels Grange, near 
Lancaster. He likewise informs us, that eight yards within the 
marie, at Larbrick, near Preston, in Lancashire, the entire head of 
a stag, of an enormous size, was found. He also mentions, that the 
head of an hippopotamus was found under the moss in Lancashire. 
Mr. A. de la Prime says*, about fifty years ago, at the very bo^ 
tom of a turf pit, was found a man lying at his length, with his 
head upon his arm, as in a common posture of sleep, whose skin 
being as it were tanned, by the More water, preserved his shape 
entire ; but within, his flesh, and most of his bones, were consumed 
and gone; an arm of whom, Mr. de la Pryme adds, one of the 
workmen cut off, and brought home to his master, which is now in 
the possession of my honoured friend. Dr. Nat. Johnson. In the 
clay lying over the peat, which was lately dug through, in forming 
the wet docks in the Isle of Dogs, the bones of horses and oxen 
were also found. 
One more instance remains to be adduced of the formation of 
oily matter from substances possessing nothing of an oily nature, 
merely by the aid of a chemical process. In referring to this, I 
trust a fair opportunity will offer itself of determining whether the 
formation of naphtha, petroleum, amber, or, in a word, the bitumens, 
may be attributed, or not, to a change induced in vegetable matter 
* Philos. Transact, vol. xxii. 
