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HUTtONIAN THEORY 



135 



Itiy own part, I would rather have it characteriz- 

 ed by a lefs fplendid, but jufter name, that of 

 the HuTTONiAN Theop.y. 



132. The circumilance, however, which gives 

 to this theory its peculiar charader, and exalts it 

 infinitely above all others, is the introduction 

 of the principle of prelTure, to modify the efFe6ls 

 of heat when applied at the bottom of the fea. 

 This is in fact the key to the grand enigma of 

 the mineral kingdom, wherCj while one fet of 

 phenomena indicates the adion of fire, another 

 fet, equally remarkable^ feems to exclude the 



r 



pofiibility of that adion, by prefenting us with 



mineral fubft 



fuch a fi:ate as they could 



arth 



never have been brought into by the opei 

 of the fires we fee at the fa rface of the ( 

 Thefe two clalTes of phenomena are reconciled 

 together, by admitting the power of compreffion 

 to confine the volatile parts of bodies when heat 

 is applied to them, and to force them, in many 

 inftances, to undergo fufion, inftead of being 

 calcined or difiipated by burning or infiamina- 



In this hypothefis, which fome afl^ect to 

 confider as a principle gratuitoufly airumed, there 

 appears to me nothing but a very fair and legi- 

 timate generalization of the properties of heat. 

 Combufiiion and inflammation are chemical pro- 



tion. 



cefi^es, to which other conditions 



are required. 



befides the prefence of a high temperature, fh 



e 



I4 



fi at e 



