ASPHALTUM, BITUMEN JUDAICUM, or JEW'S PITCH, is a light, solid bitumen, of a dusky colour on the outside, and a deep shining black within; of very little taste, and having scarcely any smell, unless heated, when it emits a strong pitchy one. It is found in a soft or liquid state on the surface of the Dead Sea, and by age grows dry
and hard. The same kind of bitumen is met with likewise in the earth in other places of the world, in China, America, and in some places of Europe, as the Carpathian Hills, France, Neufchatel, &c.
ASPHURELATA are semi-metallic fossils, fusible by fire, and not malleable in their purest state, being in their native state intimately mixed with sulphur and other adventitious matter, and reduced to what are called ores.