LIFE HISTORY OF COAL. 



world. They stretch out green, hungry fingers to seize the 

 carbonic acid gas ; within themselves break up the compound, 

 undoing our work, to fix the carbon, and for our accommodation 

 set free the oxygen, thus returning the compliment. "Within 

 the living tissues of the plant this carbon is brought into union 

 with those gases, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, in such pro- 

 portions that the product is first wood and then Coal. Life 

 acting through the tissues of the plant is able to use heat and 

 light as the means of bringing about the chemical union of these 

 elements into the organic compounds which form wood. In other 

 words, heat and light by the living plant are converted into 

 chemical action and there remain sealed up. But when the 

 resultant chemical compound is hereafter resolved into its ele- 

 ments, the heat and light so used are restored in their original 

 state and amount. The mutual convertibility of the physical 

 forces and the indestructibility of these forces is beautifully 

 illustrated thereby, and at the same time is demonstrated the 

 superiority of life to any or all of these forces, which become its 

 servants. So from the air the small acorn weighing a few grains 

 becomes the mighty oak weighing many tons, because it is gifted 

 with life. And the residuary legatee of the vegetable world, 

 mother earth, ultimately receives a bed of Coal, so the earth is 

 richer by the labours of these, as it should be by those of all 

 living things, not excepting man. Is man by his mining and 

 manufactures, etc., writing unconsciously a new chapter in the 

 Earth's history ? 



We take in carbon by our alimentary canals, for black as 

 carbon is, it is ever entering our bodies, strangely enough, in a 

 white disguise. It is odd, but true, that most of the whitest 

 things we know consist largely of carbon: milk, flour, lard; 

 paper and wood; bone and ivory; chalk and marble. But we 

 are digressing. Revenons d nos mouiotis. By the death of the 

 plant we get Coal. The death of the vegetable is the birth of 

 Coal. 



And now we are going to claim for Coal a life of its own. We 

 do not expect all to grant it, but we do hope for a patient hearing 

 and careful consideration. All turns on the -definition of life. 



