Recent and rapid Formation of Peat. 54^3 



carbonic acid, some of which is always held in solution ; the 

 carbon, hydrogen, and part of the oxygen going to form the 

 wood. That a portion of water is removed is evident from 

 an experiment of Mr. Knight, who found that sap taken 

 from a plant varied in specific gravity in proportion to the 

 distance from the root at which it was taken. 



It might also be added, as a proof of this, that, according 

 to the analysis of the woody fibre given by chemists, it is 

 found to consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; the two 

 latter in the proportion to form water. It has been observed 

 by vegetable physiologists, that light, heat, and electricity all 

 concur in accelerating the ascent of the sap : these agents are 

 well known to hasten chemical decomposition. By an action 

 of this kind, the sap, when exposed to their influence, may 

 undergo changes with greater rapidity, and consequently give 

 increased energy to the motion of that fluid. 



I have yet to mention another argument, which, if it re- 

 mained unanswered, might have great weight in crushing the 

 theory I am attempting to explain. I refer to the tendency of 

 fluids to occupy a vacuum. It might be thought that this law 

 is incapable of acting in the vessels of plants ; but the experi- 

 ments of M. Amici of Modena are, I think, sufficiently satis- 

 factory to prove its possibility, and, at the same time, its 

 reality. Assisted by the microscope, he has discovered that 

 each cavity is of itself a complete organ ; and that in this space 

 the fluids of the plant move independent of the neighbouring 

 cavities, so that by the assimilation of part of the fluid con- 

 tained in one cavity, that cavity becomes a partial vacuum to 

 those places near it. As the earth is the source of nourish- 

 ment, the motion must necessarily be upwards, and there 

 being no limit to its ascent, it rises with as much ease in the 

 stately cedar as in the humblest annual. 



London, March, 1831. H. 



Art. XIV. On the recent and rapid Formation of some Peat 



Bogs in Ireland, By George Ensor, Esq. 



Sir, 



Among the advances of the knowledge of mankind is the 



admission of the vast antiquity of the earth's existence. The 



Quarterly Review for October, 1830, p. 425., in its notice of 



Ly ell's Principles of Geology, states " that no doubt can at 



present be entertained, from the evidence of organic fossils 



alone, exclusive of other cumulative proofs from the igneous 



and stratified rocks, that before the creation of any of the 



existing species of animals, of which Man seems to be the 



