ON SOAP-SUDS AS A MANURE, 



99 



the two former, and from the phosphate of lead, which some- 

 times assumes an analogous form. 



in combating the opinion of those, who might be tempted Still it is diffi. 

 to consider the regular figures under which the steatite of '^"}'^^° "^°"': 

 Bayreuth a;id the serpentine of Mont-Rose present themsjlves quartz crystals 



as crystalline forms properly belonging to these substances, I "^^''^ destroj'- 



ed, and the 

 have not concealed the difficulties, to which the opposite opi- steatite assum- 



nion is obnoxious. I frankly confess the impossibility of con- ^^ ^^^^^"^ place, 

 ceiving, for want of local facts and observations, the means 

 that nature can have employed for destroyi:ig the quartz crys- 

 tals, which I suppose to have been originally included in the 

 steatite, and fragments of which are found in neighbouring 

 masses of steatite, to supply their place subsequently by a 

 mass similar to the gangue in which they are included, yet 

 so as to retain the ancient figure. I know not any rational 

 explanation, to account for what has become of the substan- 

 ces, the forms of which alone remain. It appears to be a 

 secret, which nature Las preserved; but which further ob- 

 servations, and inspection of the places, may perhaps some 

 day enable us to penetrate. If however we believe the 

 existence of nothing, except what we can completely ex- 

 plain, how narrow must be the bounds, to which we confine 

 our knowledge ! 



IV. 



An Experiment on Soap-Sucis as a Manure. By Mr. G. Ir- 

 win, of Taunton ; with Remarks hy the Rev. Thomas 

 Falconer*. 



JtX. Few years ago my attention was attracted by the soil Soil of a garden 

 of a garden, reduced to a state of poverty very unfriendly "become poor 

 to vegetation. Interest in its future produce influenced my 

 wishes for its restoration. An invigorating manure was ne- 

 cessary ; but such a stimulus could not be easily procured. 

 "While considering which of the succedanea within my reach 



* From Papers of the Bath and West of England Society, vol. XI, 



-p. 261. 



H 2 had 



r 



