COAL. 141 



immense growth of vegetation that then existed could ml 

 have sprung up without it. As carbon ia deadly to animals, 

 none could have lived at that time. In the "Vestiges of 

 ui,'' we find a similar statement to the effect, that Sir 

 Honry Do La Beche has calculated, that " if the quantity of 

 carbonic acid gas which is locked up in limestone, and coal, 

 were disengaged in a gaseous form, the constitution of the 

 atmosphere would undergo a change, of wliich the first effect 

 would be, the extinction of life in all animals." If this is 

 correct, how is it that the work of coal mining is so healthy 1 

 Again, the quantity of carbon that is disengaged every day, in a 

 large city where coal is consumed, ought to be so enormous 

 that much injury should result from it j yet we hear of no evil 

 effects. As the coal is being gradually consumed, the whole of 

 the caibon which was once in the atmosphere, must eventually 

 be restored to it again, the earth every year, therefore, ought to 

 be becoming more and more unhealthy, till no animal will be 

 able to live : yet we hear of no appearances to indicate such a 

 change. Lastly, carbon is said to be so injurious to man, that 

 if he breathes much of it he dies ; yet we are told that he lives 

 on it, for all vegetables they say are mainly composed of it ! 



That there is such a gas as carbon, may be admitted, but 

 that vegetation feeds on it, and is mainly sustained by it from 

 the atmosphere, is an impossibility. The only necessaries 

 demanded are heat, good or suitable soil, and water ; what- 

 ever carbon is found in the tree or plant, has been absorbed 

 from the soil and water, and not from the atmosphere. 



The hydrogen in the coal we can account for also. Prof, 

 Rogers says : " A passing allusion has been made to tho 

 absence of any mineral source for the material of the coal bedei 



