COAL. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Bitumen Lithanthrax. B. opacum nigrum fragile cum flam- 
ma ardens et ardendo fumum ni- 
grum eructans, Linn. Syst. Nat. 
Gwel. 3. p. 281. 
Black, opake, and brittle; burns with 
a flame, and throws off a black 
smoke. 
Bitumen lapideum shisto vel aliis terris 
mixtum et induratum. Waller. 
Syst. Miner. 2. p. 98. no. 6. 
Pix montana dura rudis fragilis. 
Walters. Miner. 25. 
Common Coal. . . . Cronst. Miner. 2 . p. 476. Patrin, 
Hist, des Miner.' 5. p. 315. Brogn. 
Miner. 2. p. 2. 
Coal, of all the substances which naturalists have 
arranged in the class of inflammables, is by far the 
most serviceable to mankind. Nature has dealt it to 
us with an unsparing hand, and has provided mines 
of this mineral which seem to defy the power of 
man to exhaust. England and France, where the 
different branches of manufacture are carried to a 
greater extent and perfection than in the other 
countries of Europe, are, at the same time, the 
