The experiments of which the results are detailed in this paper, were made principally on the fluid which is found to be deposited in considerable quantity when oil-gas is compressed. This fluid, as obtained at the works of the Portable Oil-gas Company, is colourless, of a specific gravity less than that of water; insoluble in water except in very minute quantities; soluble in alcohol, ether, oils, &c.; and combustible, burning with a dense flame. It is strikingly distinguished from the oil from which it originated, by not being acted upon to any extent by solutions of the alkalies. Part of this fluid is very volatile, causing the appearance of ebullition at temperatures of 50° or 60°; other parts are more fixed, requiring even 250°, or above, for ebullition. By repeated distillations a series of products were obtained from the most to the least volatile, the most abundant being such as occurred from 170° to 200°. On subjecting these, after numerous rectifications, to a low temperature, it was found that some of them concreted into a crystalline mass, and ultimately a substance was obtained from them, principally by pressure at low temperatures, which upon examination proved to be a new compound of carbon and hydrogen. At common temperatures it appears as a colourless transparent liquid, of specific gravity 0·85, at 60°; having the general odour of oil-gas. Below 42° it is a solid body, forming dendritical transparent crystals, and contracting much during its congelation. At 0° it appears as a white or transparent substance, brittle, pulverulent, and of the hardness nearly of loaf-sugar. It evaporates entirely in the air: when raised to 186° it boils, furnishing a vapour, which has a specific gravity of 40, compared to hydrogen as 1. At a higher temperature the vapour is decomposed, depositing carbon. The substance is combustible, liberating charcoal if oxygen be not abundantly present. Potassium exerts no action upon it below 186°.