Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/566

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It is Hkewife no weak argument, that thefe bodies are not formed at this time in the /tone, that they are all found per- fectly alike ; for were they continually encreafing, either in fize or number, it is probable that the new-formed ones would be fame way different from thofe which were of older date; nor can any thing be more abfurd, than to think that were they mere /tones, they would have been formed as we fee they are, not only with the external fhape and ap- pearance, but with the whole inner ftrudture of teeth ; thefe foffile teeth being not like /tones, one homogeneous body, but compounded of various parts of a different conftitution, there muft, in the formation of it, have been made a vari- ous election of humors ; one for the root, another for the inner part, and a third for the enamel, or fuperficial coat. The variety of fpecies in the gloffopetra; alone may evince, that they have belonged to the animal we attribute them to, fince they are of extremely different kinds ; fome being {trait, fome crooked, fome bent inwards, fome out- wards, fome to one, and others to the other fide, fome plain, others fcrrated at their edges, others undulated, and others befet all about with fmaller teeth, and fome ftrait and flatted, or cylindrical, others triangular, fome plain, and others tricufpidate, or having a fmall point on each fide the great one, or main body of the tooth ; and all thefe varie- ties, and no more than thefe, are found in the teeth of marks of various kinds, and at various ages, and in the dif- ferent parts of the mouth. The firft row of teeth in thefe animals hanging out of the mouth, bend forward and down- ward, the fecond row are ftrait, efpecially towards the fides of the mouth, where they are triangular and broad, and the other rows bend downward toward the inner part of the mouth, Columna, de Gloffopetra.

If the formed /tones be original productions of nature, merely refembling thefe marine bodies in form, why are we to fup- pofe that nature flopt here, or confined her formations of this fort merely to the refemblance of fifties, and parts of them ? why might not other natural bodies as well be imitated, and formed /tones found in the fhape of the horns and hoofs of animals ? for if we deny them their origin from animals, is it yet explained how, or in what manner they are formed i They cannot fhoot in the manner of falts, fince then the feveral fpecies, which are of the fame fubftance, ought to be alfo of the fame fhape, which is not found to be the cafe ; but, on the contrary, we meet with the fame fpecies of fhell in feveral kinds of matter, and compofed of every various fpecies of /tone; nay, and of the pyrites, a falino- fulphureous matter, wholly different from common /tone, and which could not, by any principle in nature, be made to fhoot as a fait into the fame form with fo different a fubftance as limeftone ; whereas, if, as we obferve, thefe bodies are really formed from fhells, &c. they muft retain the forms of thofe bodies, of whatever foffile matter they be compofed; neither could it be fuppofed, that if a fait fhould fhoot into the figure of a fhell, it fhould alfo fhoot into all the natural differences of the upper and under valve in bivalves, the one hollow, the other flat, as is neceflary in many fpecies, for the prefervation and well-being of the animal; and as thefe foflile.. bodies are found wholly cor- refponding to the moft minute particulars of the .recent fhells of the fame fpecies, there fcems no reafon to doubt their having been actually formed from them. The perfection of the figures of thefe bodies is a farther proof of their origin from animals which they reprefent, fince in all cryftallizations there are many imperfect and mu- tilated figures, nay more than perfect ones. The hexaedral figure of common cryftal, the cubes of marcafites, and the cryftals of falts in chemical operations, are all much more regular and ordinate in themfelves, than the figures of fcal- iops, cockles, and other fea-fhells ; yet in thefe fimple bodies we find great defects and imperfections ; often the top is cut off, and fometimes one of the iolid angles ; and not un- frequently numbers of thefe concretions are found adhering one to another, and injuring one another's form : fometimes, alfo, their planes greatly differ from one another in fize and fituation, and often they differ, or recede other ways, from their natural and perfect figure. Since this is .the cafe in the cryftallizations of bodies of fo fimple a figure as cubes and columns, terminated by pyramids, how much, .greater muft have naturally been the varieties and imperfections, in fuch varioufly figured bodies as the formed /tones, which re- femble the fhells of fea-fifhes, had they been formed like thefe by mere cryftallization I but no fuch defects or irregu- larities appear in thefe.

As there are, therefore, none of thofe defects in thefe com- pound bodies, to which other much more fimple ones are found fubject, and that there are no irregularities obferved in them, the like of which are not alfo found in the living animals which they reprefent; and as in whatever country they are found, and in whatever matter they are lodged, and j whatever fubftance they are compofed of, they are ever found alike among themfelves, and perfectly refembling the parts of animals, it is not to be conceived that they fhould have fhot_ into thefe forms merely in the manner of falts, but evident that they were parts of animals; the fimilitude, of

conformation in their pores, their ftrias, hinges, teeth, pr6- minences, &c. neceffarily inferring a fimilitude of original, and being a ftrong argument of the government of "fome principle fuperior to matter figured and moved in their for- mations. Nor is it any fmall argument againft their arifino- from the fhooting of falts, that in all the experiments made with the different falts and minerals by chemiftry, no one fimilar cryftallization, no refemblance indeed, even to the meaneft of them, was ever produced. Stem, de Solido intra Solidum.

To all this it may alfo be added, as an unanfwerable proof of the foflile fhells having been once marine, and having lived in the fea, that they are found with injuries which could have been no way elfe received. The purpura, and fome other fhell-fifhes, have bony tongues, with which they bore regular holes through the fhells of fhell-fifh of other kinds, in order to make their way in, and prey upon their flefh. Thefe holes are always eafily known by their regu- larity and fhape ; and fhells bored through in this manner are not only frequent on our fliores, but there are fuch alfo found foflile, bedded in the ftrata of earth or /tone ; and furely, if falts could be allowed to have fhot into the figures of fea-ftiells, they could never be fuppofed able to fhoot in- to the figures of fuch wounds, as a few of thofe fhells have received in their recent ftate from other animals. The general opinion is, that the deluge brought all thefe fhells into the places where we fee them; but this feems not ea- fily conceived; and as there is no argument fo good, but that being carried too far it will make againft its purpofe, fo the laying too much to the effects of the general deluge, has made many believe it has done nothing at all. Thefe formed /tones and real fhells are both found in vaft ftrata on the tops of the higheft mountains, the Alps, Apen- nines, and others in different parts of the world. The deluge lafted only ten months, and probably the tops of mountains were not covered half that time ; and thefe im- menfe quantities of fhells cannot be fuppofed either to have bred there in that time, or to have been carried fo high in fuch prodigious numbers. It is more probable that thefe tops of mountains were once not fuch, but bottoms of the fea. The hiftory of the marine bodies they contain is then very plain, and earthquakes may have raifed them, or they may indeed not be fo high above the level of the fea, as we at firft fight fuppofe. If indeed we ftick to the letter of the text, in the fcripture hiftory of the creation, we'ean find no account for thefe bodies from that time ; for if the crea- tion of fifties fucceeded the feparation of the land from the water in all parts of the globe, they could not be then de- pofited there ; but it is poflible, that at the creation the whole earth was not all at once uncovered, but only thofe parts where Adam and the animals were created, and the reft gradually afterwards, perhaps not in many ■ years, as- there feems no necefiity of underftanding the account of the creation to have been in fix natural days. If we may thus underftand, and conjecture in this refpect, it is not difficult to conceive, that during the years in which the earth re- mained covered with fea-water, fhell-fifh might breed and. multiply abundantly all over its bottom ; and this bottom being afterwards elevated, deferted by the- fea, and made dry land, thefe fhells muft be elevated with it, and retained in thofe ftrata, which afterwards hardened into the various kinds of earth andy^n*: and fomething of this kind fcems to have been the cafe, much rather than,' according to Dr. Woodward, that a]\ /tony matter fhould have been diffolved by the deluge, and afterwards have concreted again. i&zy's Phyficotheological Difcourfes. Solution and colours 0/ Stones. The various -beauties of the form and colour of the feveral more precious/?<jtff.r, cannot but have been always the admiration of the curious part of the world," and the wits of the ableft chemifts have been tried, in attempting to counterfeit them ; and much may be ga- thered even from their attempts, which have not fucceeded, toward the learning the true nature and hiftory of thefe beautiful bodies.

The beautiful figures of the Florentine marble, whofe veins reprefent trees, rivers, and ruins of buildings, are well known ; as are alfo the delineations of trees and fhrubs in thofe fpecies of white agates, called Mocoa /tones. All the /tones of this kind are natural, for art has not yet been able to come up to any counterfeit of them ; but it is not fo in regard to thofe agates which reprefent regular figures of beafts, &c. thefe are all affifted by art, and that by a very fimple and eafy procefs ; and Mr. Du Fay, in the Memoirs of the Paris Academy, has given at one view the feveral ways, then known, to penetrate into the fubftance of agate, marble, t$c. and to lodge figures in them. ■ The /tones fubject to be tinged he divides into two clafies, the harder and the fofter. Of the harder kind are thofe which refift the force of acids, even of the moft powerful kind; and of this clafs are agates, onyxes, and all that are vulgarly comprehended under the general name of the gems, or precious /tones^ with cryftal, porphyry, granite. Thefe, and the. like /tones, are not foluble in any of the known acids, yet thefe fame acids, impregnated with the folutions

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