In the whole realm of natural history, in the widest sense of the term,
there is nothing which could be cited which has so benefited, so
interested, I might almost say, so excited mankind, as have the wonderful
discoveries of the various products distilled from gas-tar, itself a
distillate of coal.

Coal touches the interests of the botanist, the geologist, and the
physicist; the chemist, the sanitarian, and the merchant.

In the little work now before the reader I have endeavoured to recount,
without going into unnecessary detail, the wonderful story of a piece of
coal.

E.A.M.

THORNTON HEATH,

_February_, 1896.




CONTENTS.


I. THE ORIGIN OF COAL AND THE PLANTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED

II. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE COAL-BEARING STRATA

III. VARIOUS FORMS OF COAL AND CARBON