STUDY VI. 33^ 



organic particles of every fpecies; entire bodies 

 of animals, blood, plants, faits, oils, excrements, 

 fpirits, minerals, fubftances more heterogeneous, ' 

 and more combined by Man in a flate of fociety, 

 than ever the waves of the Ocean accumulated and 

 confounded on it's (hores : there was never found 

 there, however, a fmgle organized body. 



It muft not be affirmed, that the heat neceffary 

 to their expanfion is there wanting, for it exifls in 

 every poffible degree, from ice up to fire. Salts 

 cryftallize in them, and fulphurs are formed. 

 There was picked up in Paris itfeif, fome years 

 ago, fulphur formed by Nature, in ancient dung- 

 hills of the time of Charles IX. We fee, every day, 

 that fermentation may be excited in dung to fuch 

 a degree, as to catch fire. Nay, it's moderate heat 

 is fo favourable to the expanfion of germs, that it 

 is employed for the hatching of chickens. But the 

 combinations of all thefe fubftances never pro- 

 duced any thing living, or organized. What do 

 1 fay ? The firft operations of Nature, which we 

 with to explain, are covered in fo many myfleries, 

 that an egg with an aperture ever fo fmall lofes it's 



which is the firft fluid that corruption lays hold of, and that the 

 apertures through which they breathe are not the fame with 

 thofe by which they take in their food. But thefe reafons, it 

 muft be allowed, are inapplicable to vultures, ravens, and other 

 birds of prey. 



prolific 



