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solid state; but on the earth it does not appear to form 
itself into any distinguishable shapes or crystals, as it is 
mostly condensed, and dependent on adjacent subjects that 
are not favourable to equal, or what we call perfect crystalli- 
zation, and being either in thicker or thinner plates, or 
shooting into rather undetermined spicula.—In the at- 
mosphere, however, it is sometimes surrounded by a more 
equal medium, so that every side has an equal opportunity 
to form; and thus we are allowed to see the true shape of 
the crystal of Water with as much precision as that of an. 
earth or a metal, nay, even more so than Quicksilver, 
which I believe has not been discovered. As the crystal 
of Water seems very undetermined by the authors I have 
examined, it gives me great pleasure in being able to show it. 
As hail, its crystals are in general rather opaque tetraédrons, 
formed of roughish accumulated plates—see the top and 
right hand geometrical figures—but sometimes in smooth, 
somewhat rounded transparent tetraédrons—see the left 
hand figures. Other forms have been seen; but these are 
mostly clusters of indistinct granula or spicule, or irre- 
gular solid masses, or both combined, as in the large 
hailstones that fell at Menabilly in Cornwall, as observed 
by my friend Philip Rashleigh, Esq., where the opaque, 
perhaps minutely crystallized granula were about the size 
of a pea, and enclosed in flattish irregular masses of ice, 
half an inch in thickness by an inch and a half or more 
in length or breadth.—See Mr. King’s Account of the Me- 
teoric Stones. Water is so useful in a fluid state, that neither 
mankind nor any part of the present mundane system 
could exist without it. In the solid state it is most qui- 
escent; but at the temperature to which it is most liable 
to be exposed, in various seasons and climates, it proves a 
compound ever assisting in the grand scheme of the uni- 
verse, as the cause of vegetation, beginning that life which 
is perfected in animals. It makes in most instanees the 
