404 RESIN FAMILY. It is soft. i It is rather brittle. It is easily frangible. Specific gravity, 1.078 to 1.085. Chemical Characters. It burns with a yellow-coloured flame, and fragrant odour, at the same time intumescing, but scarcely pielting. Physical Characters. When rubbed, it acquires a very strong resino-electric virtue. This property was known to the ancients, who termed amber eleclrum; from whence is derived the word electricity *. Constituent * The appearances and electrical property of amber are so often alluded to in ancient authors, that it is not necessary to shew by quotations that they were familiar with that substance ; and though the history of its origin is much involved in fable, yet they seem to have had some idea that it was found in the north of Europe S* bf't 'fir cl£ ’AttoAX&vqs rtiii $etx(>vx Anru iut, SivflC*?, are jttvg/tf vr&Qo&ivt . X?rg£«flg«#y ti£0¥ yivof H<rcc<+>tKX Pliny says, in speaking of amber, “ Certum est gigni in insulis Septentri- onalis Oceani-j-and, in another place, “ Ab adverso (.Britanniarum) i° Germanicum mare spars® GlesBariae (in<uiEe); quas Elcctrklas Grad recta' tiores appellavere, quod ibi electrum na.*:eretur J. 1 ’ In anothei place. hc says, that in the spring-time it was washed on a part of the coast of Ger* many, from an island in the North Sea ; concluding with these word*- “ Inccla* pro ligne ad ignem uti eo, proximisquo Teutonia vendere '!■ Vroitt * Apoll. Rhnd. lib. iv. lin. 611,—CO' Nat. Hist. t. vi. p. 266. ed. Brot. 5 Hist. Nat. lib. iii. || Hist. Nat. lib. xuvii.
