Note 48 — MINERALS. (continued 3)

Carbon is a name given to the pure inflammable part of charcoal. It is abundantly diffused throughout nature, for it enters into the composition of several minerals, and of all vegetable and animal bodies. The purest form under which carbon is known to exist is in the diamond (50). It may, however, be obtained sufficiently pure, for all common purposes, by burning a piece of wood, covered with sand, in a vessel called a crucible. In combination with oxygen (21) it forms carbonic acid (26). Carbon is a chief component part of pit-coal (217), petroleum (213), and other bituminous substances.