9 
flat prismatic crystals, colorless and without taste or 
smell. 
It proved however to be quite distinct from that 
analyzed by Trommsdorff, both in its composition and 
in its melting point, 46 9 C. Bromeis proposed the name 
Fichtelit for this. 
Jn 1843 Schrotter 1 became possessed of a fossil 
resin also from Redwitz. This was extracted from the 
wood by ether, and allowed to crystalise, when it was 
found to be composed of two substances, one of which 
could not be crystalised, but went down as an oil. This 
he considered to be identical in composition with Fich¬ 
telit; but erroneously, for he overlooked the fact that in 
the analysis by Bromeis the old atomic weight of car¬ 
bon is used. 
The crystaline portion of the resin received by 
Schrotter contained oxygen as well as carbon and hy¬ 
drogen. 
From this we see that at .least three or four dif¬ 
ferent, carbo-hydrogen fossil resips have been obtained 
from the turf beds of Redwitz; and all have been found in 
the well preserved stems of this one species of pine tree. 
But the same has been remarked in other places 
where similar fossil resins have been found. 
In the neighbourhood of Utznach in Switzerland is 
a bed of brown coal from two to three feet in thickness, 
which contains numerous remains of pines, firs, birches 
and other trees, in various stages of preservation. The 
pine stems are almost unchanged. 
1 Annalen d. Phys. u. Ckem. Vol. LIX, p. 55. 
