/ 



; 



§t 



al 



I 



,(. 



HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



79 



lidation, \\ 



any time, during the progrefs of confo- 

 as contained within the coats already 



formed, muft have remained there as long as the 

 agate was entire, without the leaft poflibility of 



efcape. 



But nothing is found within the coat^ 



of the agate fave its own fubllance ; therefore 

 no extraneous fubftance, that is to fay no fol- 

 vent, was ever included within them. The flui* 

 dity of the agate was therefore fimple, and un-^ 

 affifted by any menftruum. 



In this argument, nothing appears to me 



ceflary to the perfedlion of 

 tnoft faid of a mathematica 



It feems 



deed, to b 



mp 



f 



wanting, that is 

 phylical, I had 

 demonflration. 

 fible that the igneous origin of foffils could be 

 recorded in plainer language, than by the phe- 

 nomenon which has juft been defcribed. 



75. The examination of particular fpecimens of 

 agates and chalcedonies, affords many more ar- 

 guments of the fame kind, which * Dr Hutton 



ufed to ded 



with an acutenefs and vivacity 



which his friends have often liftened 



with 



great admiration and delight *. Thefe, however, 



muft be paffed 



at pref< 



and I h 



oft 



ly further to remark, that a feries of the n 

 interefting experiments, inftituted by Sir James 

 Hall, and publiftied in the Tranfadions of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh f, has removed the 



only 



* Note xiv. 



■\ 



t Vol. V. p. 43 



J> 



