HISTORY OF PITCOAL. 16^ 



tioii, in the formation of vinegar; as it does, when it is a 

 constituent pact of our vegetables. 



But lastly, if nitric acid separate from these bitumens a ^^^i^^^J^'^fhe-" 

 charcoal united with nitrogen, such as distillation would micaily cora-» 

 furnish, it uiu«t be acknowledged, that coak exists free and bined, 

 condensed in their constitution; but not in that state of per- 

 fect combination, or mutual interlacement, which never fails 

 to efface the characters of the elements of organized sub- 

 stances, as they reciprocally mask each other. 



I have said enough. I beheve to show, that pitcoal, if it ^oal '-etain* 



^ . . * noth n«^ of the 



consist of vegetables, has retained nothing of the characters, veg^itable ch*- 



that would approximate it rather to vegetable than animal '■=^'^^^'"' 

 substances. Vegetables, animals, bitumens, all have the 

 same elements; tliat is nitrogen, hidrogen, oxigen, charcoal, 

 sulphur, &c. : but the combination of these elements in pit- 

 coal certainly does not in any respect resemble those, that 

 vitality now forms in the beings arising before our eyes. 

 Where in fact are the vegetables or animals, that contain 

 charcoal simply deposited in their texture, as an oil or resin 

 is in a plant .^ Besides, what organization could admit with- 

 out inconvenience such a considerable excess of charcoal as 

 that we see unemployed in these bitumens? Such a prof u- 

 eion certainly could only be an oversight of nature. 



We must therefore stop at one or other of the following Eitlier there 

 consequences. Either nature was once capable of producing "^'^"^* '^^'''*^ , . 



*■ . . . I r o been organized 



beings, the organization of which could admit so large a beings difFer- 



proportion of charcoal ; and then the life, object, end, and ^'^* ^'■^^rn the 



means of existence of such beings, could in no respect be 



compared with those that now share the surface of the earth 



^'ith us ; and on this supposition pitcoal could only be the 



remains of animals or vegetables, which like so many others 



have disappeared from it for ever : 



Or, if coal have originated from organic productions si- or their ele- 



iiiilar to ours, its interment has not only destroyed all marks ["^"^^^ ^^^^ 



^ '' '' have been 



pi organization, but has displaced their elements, to reframe separated, and 



them, and fabricate with them tiiose fossil masses, which ^'^'"^"'-^ '" * 



. . ... . difft-rent way, 



have indeed retained all the combustibility of their nature, to form coa,)'. 

 but in which we discern no trace of vegetation or animaliza- 

 tion, no indication of the part they had to perform on the 

 jsurface of the earth. 



Oxide 



