032 Natural History. [Chap. III. 



inquiry, is Mr. Kirvvan, 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 jndgement and penetration which render 

 Jiis 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 ^'o^ and possibly much higher ; that this men- 

 struum held in solution all the different earths, — the 

 metallic, the semimetallic, the saline, and the in? 

 flammable substances ; that in this fluid it's solid 

 contents coalesced and crystallised, according to 

 the laws of elective attraction ; that these were 

 deposited in strata according to the predominant 

 proportion of the ingredients ; that by this crystal- 

 lisation of these immense masses a prodigious 

 quantity of heat must have been generated, and 

 increased by the decomposition of the water in? 

 terceptcd 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. 



* Geological Essaj/s, hy Richard KirwaD, esq. F.R.S. 3cc. 8vo. 



