Am'juiyri87h9arni" }  Asphaltum  and  Amber  from  Vincent  own.  361 
an  ether,  colors  sulphuric  acid  reddish-brown  when  cold,  black  when 
heated,  and  seems  to  differ  from  all  other  minerals  \  it  has  not  yet  been 
analyzed. — Ber.  d.  Deutsch.  Chem.  Ges.,  xii,  p.  567. 
Artificial  Amber,  consisting  of  copal,  camphor,  turpentine,  etc., 
possessing  one-twentieth  the  actual  value  of  genuine  amber,  but  resem- 
bling it  closely  in  appearance,  is  used  extensively  as  a  substitution  for 
the  latter,  and  may  be  readily  recognized  by  dipping  it  into  ether,  when 
it  loses  its  polish,  becomes  sticky,  and  softens  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
can  be  scraped  with  the  finger  nail,  while  the  genuine  is  not  at  all 
affected  by  the  ether  ;  if  placed  on  a  hot  plate  the  imitation  melts  much 
sooner  than  the  genuine. — Fharm.  Ztg.,  April  26,  1879,  p.  257. 
Japan  tallow,  or  Japan  wax,  is,  according  to  E.  Buri,  a  mixture 
of  several  glycerides,  is  readily  saponified  by  aqueous  alkalies,  melts  at 
52°C,  renders  water  acid  when  melted  with  it,  is  readily  soluble  in 
hot  commercial  absolute  alcohol,  and  crystallizes  almost  completely 
from  the  latter  on  cooling,  contains  palmitic  acid  with  at  least  one 
fatty  acid,  having  a  higher  melting  point  than  stearic  acid  (the  author 
found  one,  but  thinks  that  more  are  present),  and  also  a  small  per- 
centage of  an  oily  acid. — Archiv  d.  Pharm.,  May,  1879,  p.  403. 
ASPHALTUM  AND  AMBER  FROM  VINCENTOWN,  N.  J.1 
Mr.  E.  Goldsmith  remarked  that  he  had  received  from  Col.  T.  M. 
Bryan  a  specimen  of  asphakum,  a  miss  of  which,  weighing  about  a 
hundred  pounds,  had  been  found  in  the  ash  marl,  a  layer  above  the 
green  sand  proper,  about  16  feet  from  the  surface,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Vincentown.  It  seems  that  this  peculiar  hydrocarbon  had  not  been 
observed  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  before;  at  least  no  mention  of  it 
is  made  in  the  geological  reports  up  to  1868.  The  specimen  presented 
to  the  Academy  had  attached  on  one  side  a  layer  of  the  marl  in  which 
it  was  found.  As  the  material  in  question  is  properly  considered  a 
mixture  of  various  hydrocarbons,  it  seems  to  be  obvious  that  the  pro- 
perties vary  according  to  the  predominance  of  one  or  the  other  sub- 
stance contained  therein.  This  kind  is  very  brittle,  black,  with  a 
resinous  lustre.    Its  fracture  is  uneven,  inclined  to  conchoidal;  the 
1  From  the  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Pniladelphia, 
February  25. 
