18'2 Natural History. 



inquiry, is Mr. Kirwan, whose name has been so 

 frequently, and so respectfully mentioned in the 

 foregoing pages. This gentleman, with that learn* 

 ing which has enabled him to prosecute his nume- 

 rous investigations in so enhghtened a manner; 

 with that judgment and penetration which render 

 his inquiries so valuable; and with that spirit of 

 patient and accurate observation which is so in- 

 dispensably necessary to a successful developement 

 of this subject, has framed a theory of the earth, 

 which is perhaps the most rational and probable 

 extant.'' 



Mr. KiRWAN believes, that the superficial parts 

 of the globe were originally in a soft liquid state, 

 proceeding from solution in water, heated at least 

 to 33^. and possibly much higher; that this men- 

 struum held in solution all the different earths, the 

 metallic, the semi-metallic, the saline, and the in- 

 flammable substances; that in this fluid its solid 

 contents coalesced and crystallized, according to 

 the laws of elective attraction; that these were 

 deposited in strata according to the predominant 

 proportion of the ingredients; that by this crys- 

 tallization of these immense masses a prodigious 

 quantity of heat must have been generated, and 

 increased by the decomposition of the water, in- 

 tercepted in the precipitated ferruginous particles, 

 and by the disengagement of inflammable air, even 

 to incandescence, the oxygen uniting with the in- 

 flammable air, and bursting into flame; that this 

 stupendous conflagration must have rent and split, 

 to an unknown extent, the solid basis on which 

 the chaotic fluid rested; that from the heated cha- 

 otic fluid must have been extricated the oxygen and 

 mephitic airs, which gradually formed the atmos- 



Geological £s:aysf by RiCHARD KiRWAN, Esq. F.R.S. &c. &c. 8vo. 

 1799. 



