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gined that it derived its name Succinum, from succus, a juice. This 
opinion he thought was confirmed, by the smell it yields on being 
rubbed, and the bright flame with which it burns. According to the 
learned annotator, in the edition of Pliny by Dalechamp*, in that part 
of the world which appears to yield amber there are no trees which 
can be termed resiniferous ; but he observes, along the northern 
shore there is certainly a kind of yellow bitumen, as well as a black 
kind, to be found about Auvergne, and that from it proceeds a 
yellow naphtha, as well as from the other is produced a black 
petroleum. When the bitumen thus flows, soft, and even liquid, 
from its spring, it catches, retains, and incloses whatever it may 
meet with. Flowing thus, he supposes it to be carried into the sea, 
where, by the saltness of the water, by agitation, and great length 
of time, it becomes hardened, as likewise takes place with as- 
phaltum, thus becoming amber ; and, being driven by the winds, is 
thrown on the shores opposite to where its springs exist. Agricola 
had no hesitation in placing this substance among those of the 
mineral kingdom, considering it as a bitumen, from which he knew 
that peculiar products might be obtained by chemical operations. 
Hartmann erroneously supposed it to be a stone of the precious 
kind, and therefore considered it as one of the gems. Some mo- 
derns have adopted the old opinion of its being a vegetable pro- 
duction, supposing it to be the gum or resin of the poplar tree. 
This opinion has been corroborated by the similarity, in many 
respects, between this substance and copal, which is positively 
asserted to be a concrete juice of a tree frlms copallinum) of New 
Spain ; but this substance being neither soluble in water, like gums, 
nor in spirits of wine, like resins, has by many been also supposed 
to be of mineral origin. Girtanner even considered amber as an 
animal production, and supposed it to be formed by the large red 
* Lib. xxxvii. cap. iii. 
