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166 Biographical Notice of [Sept. 



tains, as he was accustomed to call them, he returned, through 

 his native town, to Chateauneuf, near Lyons, the residence of 

 his brother-in-law, M.de Dree; and here, while enjoying the 

 soothing attentions of friends and relations, and meditating 

 further exertions in pursuance of his favourite science, he was 

 attacked by a mortal disease, of which he died in the 53d year 

 of his age. 



From a careful perusal of the works of Dolomieu, especially 

 his later ones, the following appear to be the results of his obser- 

 vations, and the bases of his geological system. 



It appears highly probable from geometrical considerations, 

 and from the theory of central forces, that the earth at the time 

 when it received its spheroidical shape was in a state of fluidity. 

 This fluidity was probably neither the result of igneous fusion 

 nor of aqueous solution, but of the intermixture of a substance, 

 or substances, with the earthy particles, fusible, like sulphur, at 

 a moderate heat, capable of entering into more rapid combus- 

 tion when exposed to the air, decomposing water, and involving 

 the gas thus produced so as to enter into strong effervescence 

 when the superincumbent pressure does not exceed a given 

 quantity. 



The surface of this fluid by the action of the air on the com- 

 bustible ingredient which occasioned its fluidity, would at length 

 become consolidated, and would envelope the whole spheroid 

 with a shell of less specific gravity than the fluid part, and, 

 therefore, floating securely on its surface ; this latter essential 

 condition being rendered extremely probable from the well- 

 known fact that the mean specific gravity of the globe is consi- 

 derably greater than that of any natural rock hitherto known. 



The interposition of this solid shell of stony matter, a bad 

 conductor of heat, between the liquid and the gaseous portions 

 of the globe, would enable the aqueous and other easily conden- 

 sible vapours to separate themselves from the permanently elastic 

 gases, and thus the matter of the globe would be arranged in 

 four concentric spheroids according to their respective gravities ; 

 namely, the liquid central portion, the solid stony, the liquid 

 aqueous, and the permanently elastic. As the water penetrated 

 through the stony portion to the nearest fluid part, it would be 

 gradually decomposed, the consolidation would proceed down- 

 wards, the newly consolidated part would enlarge in bulk, and 

 thus, aided by the elastic expansion of the hydrogenous base of 

 the decomposed water, would occasion rifts of greater or less 

 magnitude in the superincumbent mass. Some of the larger of 

 these rifts would open a free communication between the ocean 

 and the fluid central mass, a torrent of water would rush down, 

 and the effervescence occasioned by its decomposition would 

 produce the first submarine volcanos. The lava thus ejected 

 would in time raise the mouth of the volcano above the surface 

 of the water, when it would either become quiescent, or, if 



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