272 



other. In every place the same appearances 

 attest the same order in the revolutions, which 

 have progressively changed the surface of the 

 Globe. 



If we go back to physical causes, we ought 

 to be less surprised at finding, that travellers 

 have discovered no new rocks in distant re- 

 gions. The climate has an influence on the 

 form of animals and of plants, because the play 

 of affinities, which presides over the unfolding 

 of the organs, is modified both by the tempe- 

 rature of the atmosphere, and by that which re- 

 sults from the different combinations formed by 

 chemical action ; but the unequal distribution 

 of heat, which is the effect of the obliquity of the 

 ecliptic, could have had no sensible influence on 

 the formation of the rocks ; this formation, on the 

 contrary, must itself have had a powerful influ- 

 ence on the temperature of the Globe, and the 

 surrounding air. When great masses of matter 

 pass from a liquid to a solid state, this pheno- 

 menon cannot take place without being accom- 

 panied by an enormous evolution of caloric. 

 These considerations seem to throw some light 

 on the first migrations of animals and of 

 plants. I might be tempted to explain by 

 this progressive elevation of temperature seve- 

 ral important problems, particularly that which 

 the existence of the productions of the In- 



