Analysis of the Protogaa of Leibnitz. 61 



where been formed by the force of rushing waters or other violence, 

 as is proved by the correspondence of the strata on their opposite 

 sides. 



9. For ascertaining the methods pursued by nature in the forma- 

 tion of mineral substances, it would be of advantage to compare them 

 with the results obtained in the laboratory. "JVe^'we enim aliud est 

 natura quam ars qucedam magna.^^ He will say nothing respecting 

 the production de novo of the metals, or the possibility of the con- 

 version of one metal into another ; but places the stories of the re- 

 generation of gold in sands that have been washed, and of the re- 

 fuse matter of a mine acquiring new riches, on the same footing with 

 those relating to subterranean pigmy miners and the discovery of 

 treasures by means of the divining rod, by men who, if you blind- 

 fold them, will not detect the largest and best known veins. Metal- 

 lic matter is drawn from some old mines in the Hartz, but it is a sedi- 

 ment brought in by water. 



, 10. Native and artificial cinnabar, native zinc from the East Indies 

 and that collected from the furnaces of the Hartz, native calamine 

 and that which, rising in smoke from certain ores, incrusts the same 

 furnaces, are cited as examples of an agreement between the pro- 

 ducts of nature and those of art. 



11. Artificial resemble natural crystals, but the latter, whether 

 produced by the refrigeration of a melted mass, evaporation or sub- 

 limation, being the result of a more intense heat than we are able to 

 create, and of a process much^longer than ours, are harder and more 

 perfect. The forms of insects and grass, and the liquids sometimes 

 seen in rock crystal, favor the idea that it has been formed from a 

 solution. 



12 — 15. Short and unimportant. Sal ammoniac is raised by nat- 

 ural sublimation and collected near Naples. Native gold and silver 

 have been fused and received a form from the matrix in which they 

 lie. Some mineral substances owe their form to the motion of wa- 

 ter alone, as the rounded pebbles found cemented into a rock in the 

 Alps themselves ; some are the effect of the combined agency of fire 

 and water. 



16. Of tufa, stalactites, and the caverns, whether great or small, 

 in which they are formed — also of a cavern which emitted a vapor 

 that took fire from a candle and burned some of the workman. Toads 

 sometimes found alive in the rocks. 



