As it appeared upon juridical inquiry that, in the ship’s cabin where the smoke first appeared, there lay a bundle of matting containing Russian lamp-black prepared from fir-soot, moistened with hemp-oil varnish, which was perceived to have ignited sparks at the time of the extinction of the fire, the Russian Admiralty gave orders to institute various experiments with a view to discover whether such a mixture, folded up in a mat, would kindle spontaneously; a number of experiments was accordingly performed, and the result established the fact beyond the reach of controversy. The Russian Admiralty having thus satisfied the public with respect to the self-enkindling property of this compound, transmitted an account of their investigation to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, at whose desire _M. Georgi_ repeated the experiments, by which he not only confirmed the report of the Admiralty, but extended the information which it contained, and deduced an important generalization of its views. It sometimes happens that in boiling flowers and herbs in oil, which occurs in several pharmaceutic operations, these herbs after being taken out, dried, and pressed, inflame spontaneously; care therefore should be taken, when such substances are thrown aside, that they are not heaped up near other combustible bodies. Amongst the mineral substances capable of exciting the inflammation of oils, an ore of Manganese, known by the name of the _Black Wad of Derbyshire_, holds a distinguished place; when this substance is pulverised, and moistened with a little linseed oil, it will in the space of an hour take fire, and become red hot, like burning small-coal; it is supposed that the Pantheon, in Oxford-street, was destroyed by the inflammation of a compound of _Derbyshire wad_ and oil, used in painting the scenery.