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4a J 
Or the mines, however, with which Ireland abounds, it muft 
be acknowledged that the working may, by proper precau- 
tions, be rendered but little prejudicial to health. No delete- 
rious vapours iflue from any of our minerals, while in the 
bowels of the earth; fo that if an uninterrupted current of 
air be preferved through the fhaft and level of the mine, the 
workmen who defcend into it will fuftain no injury. Even 
in the roafting of the ore, and other procefles in which noxi- 
ous fumes arife, the danger may be confiderably leflened by 
judicious management. 
Tue publick health being thus protected, the prompt acqui- 
fition of wealth by the working of our mines ought not to 
be neglected 
SHoutp this object be looked to, fome modification of the 
general plan recommended for inftruction in agriculture ought, 
perhaps, to be adopted. 
Insteap of fending ftudents to 4 profeffor of mineralogy 
ftationed in Dublin, we ought to fend them to Germany, to 
Hungary, and to Sweden, in which countries that fcience has 
now arrived to a very great degree of eminence: for a know- 
ledge of minerals cannot be acquired except on the fpot 
where they abound, and under the tuition of men long con- 
verfant with their fenfible qualities, as well as their chemical 
properties. 
Vou. IV. (G) THE 
