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Olji, 



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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



149 



This theory of coal is contained in Dr Hatton's, 

 in which the animal and vegetable remains mull 

 be fuppofed to come both from the earth and 



the fe 



It feems to be 



It any good rea- 

 fea as the chief 



fon that Arduino coniiders the 



fource of thefe materials. His remarks, how- 



+ 



ever, are very ingenious, and deferving of atten- 



tion. 



Thefe 

 arly tl 



fame 



of the origin of coal are all 

 it is in what relates to the di- 

 ftindion between the common coal, in which 

 there is no ligneous ftrudure, and thofe varieties 

 of it in which that ftruclure is apparent, and 

 again in explaining the confolidation of both, 

 that the theory, laid down here, is peculiar. 



137. Some other mineralogills refer one of 

 the ingredients of coal to the 

 dom, but not the other. Unable to refifl the 

 convidion which arifes from the fibrous ftruc- 

 ture of parts of ftrata, and even entire llrata of 

 coal, they have fuppofed, that wood^ which had 

 been fomehow buried in the earth, or perhaps 

 depofited at the bottom of the fea, had become 

 impregnated with bitumen, which laft, however, 

 they confider as of mineral origin. This appears 

 to be the opinion of Lehman, and alfo of fome 



vegetable king- 



very late writers. There feems, however, to be 

 hardly lefs reafon for referring the origin of one 

 part of coal to the vegetable or animal kingdom 



K5 



than 



