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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



443 



the several combinations being governed by the laws of affinity, and 

 the chemical and mechanical action of the living body. In the living 

 kingdom are the elements of the alkaline earths, and according to 

 peculiar organizations, so do these elements more or less abound ; 

 thus from some plants we extract sodium, from others potassium, some 

 animals are simply gelatinous, others combine gelatine and albumen, 

 and others secrete lime, phosphorus, oils, acids, bitters and sweets, 

 these various products being sometimes abstracted from the earth, 

 and finally returned to the earth, or, as is generally the case, they are 

 secreted within the living system, as the result of living action, pe- 

 culiar food or peculiar temperature. When these organic creatures 

 pass into the fossil kingdom, the peculiar acid or alkaline earth is 

 produced, but not necessarily so, for the after changes of bodies are 

 contiugent and uncertain, always depending upon their inherent quali- 

 ties, and the accidental affections or combinations to which they may 

 be exposed when they cease to be living beings ; thus the tree may 

 become vegetable earth, clay, clay slate, jasper, wood opal, bitumen, 

 coal, jet, or other well known products, as the accidents of association 

 may determine. 



These few remarks are absolutely necessary to the right under- 

 standing of natural phenomena, for unless the primary nature of fossil 

 and mineral matter be distinctly recognised, no real conception can be 

 formed of the origin of bodies generated in the various unions of 

 matter with matter. Geologists of the day admit none of the strata 

 of which this earth is composed to be of organic origin, but such as 

 abounds or is wholly composed of organic remains, not taking into due 

 consideration the natural tendency of bodies to decompose, when 

 chemically or mechanically acted upon, and to enter into new com- 

 binations according to the laws of force or affinity which govern pro- 

 duction ; but men of even common understanding see the tree 

 converted into earth, the earth into clay, the shells of animals secreting 

 calx into simple carbonate of lime, and also preserving their organic 

 form in chalk, pyrites, petrifactions, &c. ; many of the hills of Egypt, 

 for instance, are wholly composed of mummelites, but others, formed 

 by coral polyps, entirely consist of decomposed bodies of polvpifers; 

 the oolite formations of the British strata, exhibit various stages of 

 animal decomposition, myriads of creatures differing in species and 

 organic, formations uniting as one definite and inseparable result. 



Many of the superficial beds ol the earth consist wholly of fossil 

 organic bodies, and in these fossil beds the mineral bodies are gradu- 

 ally or suddenly generated and moulded into form, as rocks, stones, 

 metalline earths and other substances. The fossil kingdom, in fact, 

 embraces full one half of the superficial crust of the earth, its aggre- 

 gate masses extend over the whole bed of the waters, forming in some 

 localities mountains and mountain chains, entire islands and vast 

 portions of continents ; on the other hand, terrestrial earth is covered 

 with forests, savannahs and meadows, insects, birds, and beasts, all of 

 which contribute to increase the soil on which they tread. The nu- 

 merous islands of the Pacific and Southern oceans, still increasing in 

 their numbers and magnitude, the islands of the Red Sea and portions 

 of the great continents of Asia and Africa, the broad band of reefs 

 encircling the newly discovered continent of Australia, and the Wes- 

 tern Archipelago, are all composed of coral polypifers and other 

 lime-secreting species, including the relics of myriads of creatures 

 inhabitants of the waters, which in death deposit on the respective 

 beds their elementarv constituents, such as lime, soda, magnesia, 

 animal oil, fatty matter, iron, and other compounds, the whole being 

 heterogeneously disposed in this general reservoir of the living and 

 the dead ; and therefore it is, that, wholly composed of organic mat- 

 ter, these very extensive formations most truly come under the term 

 and appertain to the fossil kingdom ; the earths which form the 

 clothing and skeleton of bodies, the proximate principles generated 

 by or developed within the living system or in union with each other 

 after the functions of life are ceased, passing, by a regular sequence 

 of changes into the mineral kingdom, the nature of species and of the 

 changes produced by the cessation of life determining the nature of 

 the mineral bodies or beds. These oceanic formations extend over 

 the beds of all seas, distinct of themselves, or variably uniting with 

 the terrestrial matters which are carried into seas by fresh water 

 streams, or are formed from the abrasion of rocks and earths by the 

 force of the winds, waves, or tidal currents. 



Again, if we look over the surface of the earth, the same pheno- 

 mena may be observed in all parts of it; upon the remains of oceanic 

 species, beds of oysters, coral formations, and commingled material 

 of countless tribes, the trees, shrubs, and grasses make their appear- 

 ance, generating products peculiar to their natures, or becoming the 

 food of an infinite variety of animals, the artificers of other forms and 

 combinations of matter generated in the living system, and transferred 

 unaltered or altered to the fossil or mineral kingdom. Geologists 

 may contend that the sum of consolidated matter of this earth does 



neither increase nor diminish, but all the phenomena of terrestrial 

 and oceanic beds give a decided negative to this assumption ; for not 

 only are tropical seas rapidly filling up with the remains of oceanic 

 and terrestrial bodies, but the terrestrial earth itself, in localities, is 

 continually increasing from like causes, the generation of vegetable 

 mould being demonstrable to all men. The fossil formations of which 

 I more immediately speak, embrace not only the vast extent of coral 

 formations, but also all the great deserts and steppes of the earth, 

 including all ancient, modern, and recently formed coral reefs and 

 islands, the greatest portion of Africa, and large tracts in Asia, 

 America, and Australia. 



In a general view, the coral formations embrace the bodies and 

 reliqure of myriads of creatures, whose elementary constituents, re- 

 ceived during life from the medium in which they are disposed, are 

 set free from each other, or enter into new combinations, or are given 

 forth to the waters ; changes without number taking place so soon as, 

 from the decrease of the waters, the reef or island appears above the 

 surface. Exposed to tropical heat, the surface soil of the newly 

 created land, consisting of the comminuted parts of corals, fishes and 

 weeds, of beds of shell fish, and of consolidated madrepore structures, 

 undergoes a rapid change into sands, siliceous pebbles, carbonates and 

 sulphates of lime, and other products peculiar to the fossil soil and 

 the surrounding influences acting thereon; and this excitement of 

 change, of decomposition and re-combination in bodies and fossil beds, 

 is not confined to the surface soil, but extends to the inner beds, vary- 

 ing in direction and force; thus other phenomena are simultaneously 

 or progressively produced at this local commencement of the mineral 

 kingdom ; the generated acids produced by the recombination of the 

 separated elements of bodies, evolve through the dry and porous 

 strata, uniting in their passage to various alkaline earths, or uniting 

 and contending with each other, are the primary agents of change 

 from the fossil to the mineral state. 



That many mountains owe their origin to volcanic action, is an 

 unquestionable fact, but the bulk of aggregate is produced most un- 

 doubtedly by the moving force of waters, by depositions of organic 

 matter chemically or mechanically precipitated, and by the gradual 

 accumulation of oceanic species dispersed in groups and families in 

 particular regions: there are submarine chains of mountains, embracing 

 a geographical range of many thousand square miles, disposed beneath 

 the waters of the Pacific anil Southern oceans, which owe their origin 

 and continuous increase to the living occupants of the waters, the deep 

 laid foundations of these extensive accumulations having, most pro- 

 bably, never been affected by volcanic action ; and there is one great 

 truth practically manifest to the accurate observer of nature, that the 

 waters are continually diminishing from the face of the whole earth, 

 and more particularly so beneath the tropical band, where seas are 

 shallowed by the vast increase of calcareous bodies, the living and the 

 dead. This affords a ready solution of the many singular phenomena 

 which are otherwise inexplicable, or are only to be explained by doing 

 violence to nature. 



The experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy led him to believe that 

 heat was generated in the inner beds of the earth by accidental mix- 

 tures of the inflammable gases and oxygen ; but, unacquainted with 

 the phenomena of fossil soils he was disqualified from proving the 

 soundness of his views. In these soils embracing recent formations, 

 and also soils produced in earlier epochs, particularly when disposed 

 in high and dry climates, in rainless regions, or within the tropical 

 band, the electric fluid is generated in vast quantities in the interior 

 of the earth, and, more especially, in those beds, which, in their 

 primary fossil state contain the metals in their uncombtntd state. 

 The virgin soils or fossil beds abounding in ad parts of the superficial 

 crust of the earth, consist of the elementary compounds of organic 

 life, changed and perpetually changing in their unions and conse- 

 quently in their properties, after they have entered the fossil kingdom, 

 which is of necessity, before they enter the mineral kingdom: in their 

 primary fossil state they do not embrace what, strictly speaking, may 

 be termed mineral bodies, but they embrace the elements of many 

 mineral substances, and under favourable circumstances, do eventually 

 produce them, abstracting the oxygen necessary to effect these changes 

 irom the atmosphere and from the waters: for instance, an island 

 which is formed of the comminuted particles or entire skeletons of 

 myriads upon myriads of the inhabitants of the deep, no sooner rises 

 its head above the waters, than it becomes exposed to new and pow- 

 erful influences: the effect depending upon the nature of those influ- 

 ences is at once strikingly beautiful and important : a universal and 

 intense chemical action ensues, the process of decomposition and re- 

 combination embracing every fossil body, hydrogen is driven off to 

 form other unions, and oxygen, nitrogen or carbon supply its place, 

 the marine acids now generated are set in motion, moving to and fro, 

 uniting with alkaline bodies forming a very important class of salts, 



