Account of an Explosion of Oil Gas, Sfc. 83 



from any which now exist ; like the mammoth, they have en- 

 tirely disappeared from the face of the earth ; the very race 

 has been utterly destroyed. But the deluge which effected 

 this, was not the universal deluge described in Scripture, for 

 of all that then lived, and was liable to be destroyed by the 

 devouring element, individuals were carefully preserved to ex- 

 tend tlie race of animals to the present day. Mr Buckland 

 will, I trust, see the propriety of in future avoiding all specu- 

 lations which have even a remote tendency to mingle up mat- 

 ters esteemed by most men as sacred, with short-sighted hu- 

 man theories, amongst which, I fear, must be ranked that 

 which he has brought forward, and defended with much inge- 

 nuity and labour. 



Art. XVI. — Account of the Explosion of Oil Gas which took 

 place at Edinburgh, on the 23d March 1825, with Obser- 

 vations on the Safety of Gas. 



Amoxg the events of the physical world, which record at 

 distant intervals the fury of the elements, there are few which 

 occasion so great alarm as the explosion of those powerful 

 agents which we have, as it were, domesticated for our use. 

 The mind soon reconciles itself to dangers, however appal- 

 ling, which it can neither foresee nor control. The West 

 Indian breathes with tranquillity the same air which, but 

 a few hours before, has been agitated with a hurricane or 

 a tornado. The South American treads fearlessly on the very 

 soil in which the earthquake has engulfed his friends and his 

 relations ; and the Catanian rebuilds his habitation, with that 

 very lava which, in torrents of liquid fire, had swept his former 

 dwelling into the sea. It is far otherwise, however, with those 

 calamities which spring from carelessness or miscalculation. 

 If, in augmenting our comforts, we have unthinkingly added 

 to our dangers ; or if, in availing ourselves of the wisdom of 

 the serpent, we have forgotten to protect ourself against its sting, 

 we must then submit to that self-reproach, to which our want 

 of judgment, or our want of caution, has so justly exposed us 

 During the last thirty year's, scierice has been making vast 

 contributions to the immediate comforts and wants of our 



