JOURNAL 



O F 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AN D 



THE ARTS. 



JUNE 1800. 



ARTICLE I. 



Obftrvations on the Proofs of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, adduced by Sir Jams 

 Hall, Bart. By R. KiRWAUt Esq.- Communicated iy the Author. 



Af 



lS fome pofitions which I laid down in my examination of Dr. Mutton's Theory of 

 the Earth, may feem queftionable from the ingenious reafoning employed by Sir James 

 Hall in the third volume of the Edinburgh Tranfadlions, to corroborate fome of Dr. Hut- 

 ron's aflertions, and may even be thought inconfiftent with fome of the curious refults tliat 

 occurred in the highly interefling experiments inftitutcd by the worthy Baronet, and in- 

 ferted * in the fifth volume of the Edinburgh Tranfa£lions (a printed tranfcript of which he 

 has had the goodnefs to fend me), I think it a duty incumbent upon me to examine both 

 the general reafoning employed by him, and the confequences fairly deducible from his 

 experiments. Fanciful and groundlefs as the Huttonian theory feems to me to be, it may, 

 like the refearches for the philofopher's ftone, be highly ufeful by fuggefting new ex- 

 periments. 



In the third volume of the Edinburgh Tranfaftions', Hift. p. 9, we are informed, that 

 Sir James Hall, though convinced from various obfervations that granite had once flowed 

 in a ftate of fufion, yet acknowledged that fome difficulties accompanied this opinion i 



* Alfo in this Journal, IV. 8. 56, 

 Vol, IV. — June 1800. O among 



