56 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION 1 . 



will be the heat, provided the material elements and conditions 

 are adapted to produce heat. 



Mineral atoms are not all combustible in every situation and 

 condition, for some find certain vegetable atoms with which 

 they will specially reciprocate, and, often times, will reciprocate 

 with no other sufficiently to produce heat. 



The differing effects of the various combinations of the same 

 material, are to be seen from the variety of displays in 

 pyrotechnic exhibitions, induced by merely changing the con- 

 ditions and positions of the material. 



This is a branch of chemistry which is comparatively 

 unexplored. The foundation, or cause, of chemical action being 

 now furnished, and its mystery removed, there is abundant 

 room here (that is in classing matter according to its nature and 

 properties) for students, to make themselves useful, not to say 

 distinguished in their day and generation. 



A coal fire burns. Why ? 



Because we have in the coal the suitable material for pro- 

 ducing combustion ; that is, a certain species of both classes 

 of atoms required. Coal is iormed from vegetable matter, 

 saturated by mineral solutions and gases. These have been 

 produced from the dissolving of minerals in the interior of the 

 earth, through the agency of water. These solutions and gases 

 by reciprocating, permeate the vegetable matter until it is crys- 

 tallized or petrified into coal. By the mechanical appliance of 

 fire, or combustion, to this coal, a reciprocal action again takes 

 place in a new and different form, between the atoms of the two 

 classes in the coal, in consequence of which these gases and 

 particles are again set free, or are repelled from the pieces of coal; 



