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it would not only foon infed and involve all, but the moft folid 

 bones perhaps, in one complete corruption and diffolution, and 

 confequcntly leave no other veftige of the animals remaining j 

 but, by the difcngagement of putrid air, or of the different 

 fpecies of gafes produced by the putrefadJive fermentation, either 

 the furrounding matter muft be puffed into cavities and air- 

 bladders ; or, if the medium was fufficiently yielding to admit 

 thefe gafes to collect and force a paffage upwards, fuch an iilr 

 teftine motion muft be produced, as would have greatly dif- 

 turbed, if not deftroyed, not only the regular laminar ftrudure 

 of the ftone, but the very forms and fubftance of the fifh as 

 we fee them, contrary to experience, and the adual ftate of th? 

 fads. - . '' . 



From thefe confiderations therefore it feems juft to conclude 

 that the bodies of thefe animals did not undergo any fimultaneous 

 putrefadion ; but as it is clear that their oily, mucilaginous, and 

 other foft parts muft have been conveyed away, to have pro- 

 duced this effed, without general putrefadion, in the circum- 

 ftances here flated, I conceive can only be explained on the 

 fuppofition of a rapid abforption of thefe by the inclofina; 

 matter, as faft as they become capable of it. 



We are now to look for a caufe adequate to the produdion 

 of the feveral effeds, which, from the above ftatement, appear to 

 have taken place, — a caufe which fhall account for the fudden, 

 and, as I may call it, unexpeded diffufion in a part of the fea, 

 of the kind of ftony matter that we find inclofing thefe fifh, 

 in a pulverulent form, and in the immenfe quantity indicated 



Vol. V. P p by 



