Note 7 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Dr. Petit found the crystalline in the eye of a man eighty years of age so yellow as to resemble amber.
“When exposed to heat it becomes soft, swells, bubbles up, is apt to take fire, and burns with a yellowish flame.”—Heron’s Chemistry.
“It gives out electricity by friction. It is an indurated vegetable juice, and not produced by the laws of crystallization, but by the same causes which influence the mechanical condition of gum arabic, and other resinous substances. Insects are often found embedded in it.”—Parkes’s Chemistry.
It is a fact, that to silence such objections, a great improvement in amber, very pure and costly, was announced; this was nothing more nor less than yellow plate-glass, the same as is used in stained-glass windows. I have several specimens of these “superlative patent amber” in my possession.