144 Queries concerning Amber. 
.Vitriol* Alum, Nitre, and feveral metallic and 
mineral Bodies ? May it not then be ima¬ 
gined poffible for this fame acid V apour fo 
to mix with and confolidate fuch bitumi¬ 
nous foilil Oil, or Naptha, as thereby to 
produce Amber ? 
£hiere 3. Is there any thing in the Ap¬ 
pearance of Amber, or in the Places where 
it is found, that may conduce towards 
forming fotne probable Conjedture concern¬ 
ing the Production of this Body * ? 
§uere 4. Do not the feveral Species of 
Infedts found in Amber, prove, beyond all 
Difpute, that it muft have been in a fluid 
State at the Time thofe Infects were in- 
tangled in it? Are not the Springs or Ooz- 
• We are told, that where Amber is met with in Quan¬ 
tity, there is likewife conftantly an Abundance of Vitriol. 
No Country yet known affords more or better Amber than 
Pruffia, where it lies, as Hartman fays, in a Kind of Stra¬ 
tum or Bed, intermixt with a Subftance refembling foffil 
Wood or Bark, but whofe Origination he imputes to a 
fat bituminous Earth : Vitriol and Bitumen are alfo here 
in Plenty, and he was informed there are Springs of Oil 
riling out of the Ground; from all which Circumftances 
put together, his Conclufion is, that the Exhalations of Bitu¬ 
men (from a fubterraneo.us Heat) are coile&ed into Drops ; 
that the fame Heat pervading the neighbouring Salts, car¬ 
ries their Effluvia along with it, and mixes them with the 
bituminous Drops; whence he fuppofes, that the faline 
Spiculte fix the Bitumen and produce Amber, which is 
more tranfparent, better fcented, and firmer, according to 
the Purity and Proportion of the bituminous and faline Ex¬ 
halations. Vid. Phil. c franf. N° 248. May not fome of 
'the foffil Oil here mentioned be as eaiily fuppofed to have 
been fixt by the faline Effluvia or Spicuise l 
mgs 
