DISCOVERY OF A WHITE FOSSIL POWDER. 257 
as a seasonable gift of the Great Spirit of the forests. It 
would appear, indeed, that it has more than an apparent re- 
semblance to meal, for Berzelius found, on analysis, that it 
contained a small portion of animal matter, though the bulk 
of it was pure silica. Es. 
Another apparently similar powder has more recently been - 
discovered, which stands in the same relation to plants as 
that of Ehrenberg does to animals. The forms from which, 
in both, it is derived, are placed at the bottom of the scale 
of organic life, only one remove from inorganic matter, and - 
where embryo vitality commences; and they constitute to- 
gether a group, which is the connecting link between the 
Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms. Some of their forms are 
so ambiguous, that the acutest naturalists who have studied 
them most, are still divided and uncertain as to which they 
essentially belong. The extremities of some show moveable 
little points, which afterwards change into new individuals; 
are these ova or gemma? And others have been observed 
to increase by separation; are these polypes, or viviparous 
vegetables? Many of the species emit an animal smell when 
burnt, by which it has been inferred they ought to be classed 
With animals; but this is only negative evidence, for various 
large Alge of undoubted vegetable origin also produce a 
— Similar odour on being burnt to a coal. Wherever the line — 
_ Of separation may be ultimately drawn, (which it probably | 
. Dever can,) they constitute together a transition group, 
; imperceptibly passing upwards on the one hand into the Jem 
animal, and on the other, into the vegetable kingdom; each 
Successive division in the ascending scale, becoming more — - 
and more decidedly stamped with the characters of the one — 
or the other, and in its advance being endowed with a higher 
and more complex organization. But while just emerging 
from doubt and obscurity, there are some existing forms 
_ Which may be safely referred to the animal, and others to a 
_ the vegetable kingdom, both still retaining the common cha- — 
. Fàcter of being invested with a siliceous case or envelope, 
. Which is indestructible; analogy therefore would lead us to - : 
-« Vel. IL--No. 18. Tf E o. 
