35* On the onftifttent Parts nf Azof. 



convcrfion of water into a plant or organifed azot. No de- 

 gree of heat can fupplv its place; and this fingle experiment 

 might be fufficicnt to convince every unprejudiced reafoner, 

 that heat and liglit are two fubftanccs entirely different. I 

 am furprifed that this green matter nf Priefiley, this /bw/i- 

 val'is, fhould not have been more attended to by chemifts. 

 It is the nioft wonderful fubflance cxifting ; the moft Angular 

 body in nature. Nothing can 'be more abfurd than what 

 has been advanced by Prieftley. To reafon as he does, is to 

 reafon like a child. This celebrated man, wliofe name will 

 live as long as the fciences are cultivated', has made moft 

 important difcovcrics. I admire his fsgacity, but I am forry 

 to fee in all his works that he is rather an experimenter than 

 a philofopher. While he difplavs to us with one hand the 

 aftonifliing fccrets of Nature, he keeps the other always ready 

 to clofc our eyes, left we fliould {how a delire of penetrating 

 further than he choofes us to extend our view. He has given 

 lis a ftriking inftance of his unvvillingnefs to allow us to fee 

 the wonders of Nature, except through his facerdotal glafs, 

 in the difpute which he had with Dr. Ingenhouz rcfpeelipg 

 the green matter in queftion. Ingenhouz, an enlightened 

 naturalift, having defcribed a great number of experiments 

 refpeiting this fingular fubftancc, which are worthy the at- 

 tention of every thinking l)cing, adds : " The water itfclf, or 

 fome fubftance in the water, is, in my opinion, converted 

 into this kind of vegetation. It is a real tranfniutation, which 

 may appear incomprehcnfible to the philofopher, butwhicli, 

 at bottom, is not more extraordinary than the change of grafs 

 and other vegetables into grcafe in the bodies of graminivo- 

 rous animals, and the change of the aqueous juice of the 

 olive into oil." 



Water is changed into a plant : fuch is the faft. There 

 Inorenhouz ftops. He fays, I have no comprehcnfion of the 

 caufe. This is the language of a philofopher. Prieftley, on 

 the other hand, is fcandalifed at this language; and he alks 

 Dr. Ingenhonz, if he is not afliamed to attempt to revive the;^ 

 long affo refuted doftrine of fpontaneous generation *. He 



fpeaks 



' Pricnicy fays that the theory of fpontaneous generation is a doftrine 



long 



