68 
NATURAL HISTORY. (Fosslls. ) 
[north 
of using the sand (arenilla) in lieu of blotting paper. — Chloride of 
silver, called also horn-silver and corneous silver: amorphous, bo- 
tryoidal, in laminae and crystallized in minute cubes and octahedrons, 
from Veta Negra in Chili, the Saxon Erzgebirge, Sec_ Chloride of 
mercury, or horn-quicksilver,vn\h. native mercury from Moschel-Lands- 
berg, Almaden, &c. 
Cases 60 and 60 A contain a small collection of organico-chemical, 
or such mineralized substances as are composed after the manner of 
organic bodies, from which they derive their origin. They are divided 
into salts, resins, bitumen, and coal. To the salts belong—the mellate 
of alumina, also called mellite or honey-stone, found in beds of brown 
coal at Artern in Thuringia; and the oxalate of iron, formerly known by j 
the name of resinous iron, but to which that of humholdtite or oxalite is i 
now generally given.—With these is also placed the struvite, a recently- j 
formed phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, discovered in innumera- ; 
ble crystals on laying the foundation of St. Nicholas’s church, at Ham¬ 
burg, in 1845.—To the resins are referred—the amber, of the varieties of '' 
which a considerable suite is deposited, many of them inclosing insects, 
&c.; to which, for the sake of comparison, are added, specimens of re¬ 
cent copal, like-wise containing insects fossil copal or Highgate resin; 
— retinite or retinasphalt, found at Bovey; together -with some other re¬ 
lated resinous substances;—the ic?rifl!Z 2 Ye, to which the bituminous cin¬ 
nabar or brand-ertz is partly referable. To the, bitumina belong the 
varieties of mineral pitch of all degrees of consistence, from the fluid 
naphtha and mineral oil or petroleum, to the solid and hard asphalt diod 
jet or pitch coal; —the elaterite or elastic bitumen of Derbyshire (a suite 
of specimens exhibiting all degrees of solidity, from that of honey to 
that of a compact ligneous substance). With these is also placed the 
dapeche, an inflammable fossil substance found by Humboldt in South 
America, having several properties of the common caoutchouc or Indian I 
rubber; —the hatchettine, a bituminous substance from Merth>T Tydvil in \ 
South Wales; the scheerertte; the hartite, and the ixolyte of Haidinger, ; 
&c. — Coal: black coal, and brown coal —of these a few specimens only j 
are deposited, their different varieties being rather objects for a geolo¬ 
gical collection. 
FOSSILS. 
Room I. 
The collections of Organic Remains begin, in Room I. with that of 
the Fossil Vegetables, at present deposited chiefly in the Wall Cases of 
the S. and W. sides of the room. A systematic botanical arrangement 
has been adopted, so far as the limited space and the as yet doubtful 
nature of many of those fossil remains admitted of it. 
Case 1 is set apart for the small number of fossils apparently of 
the class of submerged Alg^e, such as Fucoides, Confervites, &c. In 
the same Case are provisionally placed those impressions on co^l slate, 
of plants with verticillated leaves, known by the generic names of Astero- 
phyllites, Annularia, &c., and supposed by some to be referable to the 
Naiades; asalsoafew that appear to bear aflinity to the Marsileace.®, 
