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Simple inflammable Fossils.

SERIES II.

Class II. Genus LPISSASPHALTA.

Pluid, mineral bodies , of a somewhat thick conffence, dusky and opake , of a strung smellsreadily inflammable , but leaving a residuum of greyish ashes after burning.

I. Pijfafphaltum tenue , rufo-nigrefcens ; quod Oleum terrœ quibtfdatn-.Thinner , blackish Pijfafphaltum , calsd by some oil of the earth.

T H I S is a considerably thick mineral fluid, tho’ much thinner than the otherspecies of this class; it is of a dulky, brownish black, with a faint cast of pur-plish, of the consistence of a thin syrup ; of a dull, dusky hue, and very little transpa-rent, but of a very strong and penetrating smell, extreamly like that of the commondistil I'd oil of Amber ; it is very readily inflammable, but does not burn long; it emitsa very disagreeable smell in burning, with a dead whitish flame, and leaves a large re-mainder of grey allies; distill’d by the retort it affords a very brisk scented and pene-trating oil, much resembling the pale colour'd native Petroleums, and, like them, readily^flammable, and burning all away without remainder; the mass left in the retortmuch resembles the coarser masses of Asphaltum.

It owzes out of the cracks of rocks in several places in the island of Sumatra, and insome other parts of the East-Indies, and is much esteem’d there in paralytic disorders,md call’d by the natives Miniac Tannah, that is, oil of the earth ; we also call it OleumTerræ, but it is seldom imported into Europe ; what the East-India Surgeons and Cap-tains bring over, under the same name, being a vegetable oil impregnated with theVirtues of certain of their Fostils by boiling.

2. Pijfafphaltum crafftus } nigrefcens ; quod Piffœlœum hidicum

offcinarum.

Thicks black Pijfafphaltum ; the Barbadoes tar of the pops.

This is a heavy, thick, and dusky looking mineral fluid ; it is of the colour andConsistence of common treacle, and of a very opake hue ; it is of a disagreeable smell,saintly approaching to that of oil of amber, but less brisk and pungent than in anyother of the liquid Bitumens; it is readily inflammable, and burns with a brisk andv wid white flame, but leaves a large residuum, which finally calcines into greyisha she$.

It makes no effervescence with Aqua Fortis.

While burning it emits a smell much more disagreeable than before.

It is found trickling down the sides of the mountains at the back of several ofour plantations in America, but I cannot hear that it is now any where found in’W place from whence we originally nam’d it; it is in great esteem in many partsOs America, for coughs, consumptions, and all disorders of the breast and lungs; butEither there, nor with us, is often to be met with genuine, several different sophists-onions of it having in different places obtain’d credit enough to be readily allow’d°s under its name.

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5 N

3. Piflafphaltum