Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/580

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tempted ingenious cheats to introduce animal bodies in fuch artful manners into feemingly whole pieces of amber, that it is not eafy to detect the fraud. The antietits have de- fcribed globes of amber with bees immerfed in them, and the cabinets of the modern virtuofi afford many fuch pieces ; but Sendelius, alter accurately examining many of thefe fpe- cimens, fufpects them all to be fophiflicated. Many fpecies of the fly kind, however, are obvioufly and indifputa- bly lodged by nature there : among this tribe of animals, the feveral fpecies of the ichneumon By are found the moft numerous ; the common houfe and flefh flies are alfo fre- quently found thus preferved ; and it is remarkable, that of thefe fome have preferved, and others have wholly loft their natural colours. Thefe are fomethnes found in cloudy pieces of amber, but much more frequently in the perfectly clear and fine ones ; and in thefe many are fcen plainly to be en- crufted with a thin coat of the matter of the amber, feparate from the mafs. Befide the animals already named, the ca- binets of the curious afford us numerous inftances of the fmall fpecies of butterflies, the cricket, the grafhopper, beetles of various kinds, but thefe only fmall ones, the larger and ftronger being able to force their way out of the once vifcid mafs, and therefore never remaining entangled in it. Some of thefe, which are inclofed in it, arc plainly feen to have ftJuggled hard for their liberty, and even to have left their limbs' behind them in the attempt ; it being no unufual thing to fee, in a mafs of amber that contains a ftout beetle, the animal wanting one, or perhaps two of its legs ; and thofe legs left in different places, nearer that part of the mafs from which it has travelled. This alfo may account for the common accident of finding legs, or wings of flies, without the reft of their bodies, in pieces of amber ; the infects, to which thefe have belonged, having, when entan- gled in the yet foft and vifcid matter of the amber, efcaped, at the expence of leaving thefe limbs behind them. Drops of clear water are fometimes alfo preferved in amber. Thefe have doubtlefs been received into it while foft, and preferv- ed by its hardening round them. They are ufually con- tained in cavities too large for them, though fometimes the holes are filled up. In fome fpecimens, the holes alone re- main without any moifture. Nnturalifts, who have been fo curious as to examine this liquor contained in the amber, have found it to be of an auftere tafte, like that in which vitriol had been diffolved: others mention the having met with it wholly infipid, and fome tafling of fea fait. It is eafy to account for a drop of water, of any of the three kinds, being found in amber, but the vitriolic water is the moft natural there, as there is always great plenty of vitriol where the amber is found. Some people, who have been poffefied of pieces of amber thus containing water, have thought that the quantity was continually increafing and decreafing, ac- cording to the increafe and decreafe of the moon ; but this is not countenanced by any certain obfervation. Hartman, Hift. Succin.

jfmber, though fufible with a fmall fire, and concreting again when cold, yet differs from the metals, and other fuiible bodies of that kind, in this, that as foon as cold they are the fame as before melting ; but amber, when it has once been melted, is no longer amber, it lofes its beauty and hard- nefs : and the true reafon of this is, that being compofed of bitumen and fait, the fait flies off in the heating, and leaves the remainder little better than the fimple reliduum of an evaporated petroleum, or any other liquid bitumen. There have been people, at different times, who have pretended to have an art of melting fmall pieces of amber into a mafs, and conftituting large ones of them ; but this feems fuch an- other undertaking as the making of gold, all the trials, that have yet been made by the moft curious experimenters, proving, that the heat which is neceffary to melt amber, is fufficient to deftroy it. Phil. Tranf. N° 248. p. 25. Hartman indeed mentions an accident, which fhews a pofli- bility of many pieces of amber being combined into one by an operation of nature, though it never could be effected by art. A fheep was once killed in Pruffia, in whofe fto- mach a large piece of a?nber was found, which was compofed of feveral other fmaller pieces, the joinings of all which might be feen, though as firm, as the pieces themfelves. This is a proof that the creature had fwallowed the whole in fmall pieces with its food, and that nature, by the heat and juices of its ftomach, had foftened thofe pieces without melting them, fo as to make them unite firmly, though not he thoroughly blended with each other. Could art arrive at this, which it is not probable it ever will, even this is far fhort of what "is pretended of melting amber, and cart- ing it into what form is defircd. The factitious curiofities in amber, which are pretended to be pieces of this foflil, with infects embedded in it, are ufually no other than a hardened varnlfh, not having the hardnefs, or Qther qualities of amber. Some few of them are a?nber melted, into which the infects have been put in that ftate, but thefe are very coarfc and brittle. Thefe two kinds of cheat are eafily difcovered by their want of hardnefs, and the other by ob- ferving the fides of the piece, to find the joining where if has. been folk.

Among the numbers of infects thus preferved, as fome are covered within the mafs with a thin coat, or cruft of pure amber ; fo others are covered with a cruft of a white matter of a like thicknefs, but feeming different from the nature of the amber. The true cantharides are fometimes alfo included in amber, and prefcrving all the beauty of their colours there, they make a very fplendid appearance. The ant is moft frequently met with in pieces of amber-, and the earwio- is fometimes found very perfect and beautiful in it. The fpider kind afford very numerous fpecies. The millepedes are not unfrequcntly met with. The fcolopendra? appear in great beauty, when their bodies are twifted and contorted, as not unfrequently happens in the large globes of amber whers they lie. Caterpillars are alfo fometimes found, butthefoft- nefs of their bodies has made them fubject to great injuries, and they are often fqueezed, compreffed, and injured, fo as fcarce to be known.

Thefe are the fpecies of land animals moft frequently found in amber ; to thefe fome add the loufe and flea : and though thefe have brought great difcredit upon all the infects in- clofed in amber, in the judgment of many, as feeming cer- tainly counterfeit, yet Sendelius, who had carefully examin- ed feveral of the maffes in which they were found, and could find no trace, of fraud in any of them, attempts to account for fuch animals being naturally included in the fubftance of the amber, while yet foft, in the manner of the other infects.

To thefe animals thus imprifoned, many authors add ac- counts of fmall fifb, young water newts, and other aquatic animals, but thefe feem in general to have been fophiflicated maffes ; and indeed it is obferved, that even the moft com- mon water infects are very rare in amber. The way in which all the infects, that are truly found lodged by nature in amber, were placed there, is not hard to guefs, when we are fo far acquainted with the nature of amber, as to be af- fured from experience, that it is at firft a fluid, and by de- grees becomes vifcid and thick like turpentine, from which ftate it gradually hardens into the folid form we find it in ; and this is fufficiently proved; fince there have been at times found quantities of true amber yet in its fluid ftate; and the ftrueture of fome globes of amber abundantly fhew, that they have hardened from a fluid ftate, fome being plainly compofed of feveral plates, and fome containing a mafs of amber in another larger mafs ; the internal mafs having un- doubtedly hardened firft, and the external, while yet in a fluid ftate, gathered and concreted round it. This being the manner of the including of the infect tribe in amber, it feems that infects alone fhould not be fubject: to that fate, but that other matters, which fall in the way of the amber while yet foft and vifcid, fhould fhare the fame fate. The locomotive power of die animal kingdom gives; its creatures opportunities of falling into thefe maffes, while vegetables and minerals have not ; yet as thefe cannot but fometimes fall in the way of the hardening matter of amber, they are fometimes found immerfed in it. Beautiful leave* of a pinnated ftructure, refembling fome of the ferns, or maiden-hairs, have been found in fome pieces ; but thefe are rare, and the fpecimens of great value. Other lefs beau- tiful vegetable fubftances are more frequently found than thefe, though all of this tribe are fcarce in comparifon to the animals. Small pieces of heath, and fragments of the alga, and fome other plants, common about the fea fliores, are fometimes found ; as alfo fmall fragments of wood, the feeds of fome plants, and pieces of the ftalks of others. Thefe are fometimes found alfo, but a little way, buried in the amber, and at other times are only fattened to its fur- face; the fmall fpecific gravity of thefe bodies, too little to immerfe them into the fluid, and the different confiftence of that hardening fluid, may have been the occafion of thefe bodies having made their way into the maffes but to fmall depths : and indeed, if we confider the whole procefs, many happy accidents muft concur to the perfect and beautiful immerfion of a foreign body in this bitumen. Mineral fubftances are alfo found at times lodged in maffes of amber : fome of the pompous collections of the German princes boaft of fpecimens of native gold and filver in maffes of amber ; but as there are many fubftances of the marcafite, .and other kinds, that have all the glittering appearance of gold and filver, it is not to he too haftily concluded, that thefe metals are really lodged in thefe beds of amber. Iron is found in various fhapes immerfed in amber, and as it is often feen eroded, and fometimes in the ftate of vitriol, it is not impoffible but that copper, and the other metals, may be alfo fometimes immerfed -in it in the fame ftrata ; and that the bluifh and greenifh colours, fometimes found in the recent pieces of amber, may be owing, like the particles of the gem colours, to thofe metals ; but as the gems, by their denfe texture, always' retain their colours, this lighter, and more lax bitumen ufually lofes what it gets of this kind, by keeping fome time. Small pebbles, grains of fand, and frag- ments of other ftones, are not unfrequently alfo found im- merfed in amber. Thefe, it is very plain, have fallen into the mafs while not yet quite hardened; though things of this fpecific gravity, when found lodged deep in it, muft have

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