8 A SYSTEM OF 



ores, but to profecute them to the very workfliop 

 of Nature herfelf, where they may be made with 

 more certainty, though in a narrow compafs •, I 

 mean, in the very mines, quarries, and diggings, 

 of the ftrata of the earth. For I myfelf have 

 been aftonifhed to hear that the Mint is faid to be 

 produced by a calcareous fubftance, only becaufe 

 it is found in the ftrata of chalk in England, and 

 in the limeftone at Kinnekulle in the province of 

 Weftergottland in Sweden : and I am farther of 

 opinion, that a ftone, feparated from its bed, 

 and thrown loofe on the furface of the earth, 

 does not difcover more marks of increafe, than 

 do bones difperfed in a churchyard, 



SECT. II. 



The bodies belonging to the mineral kingdom 

 are divided into four different claries : viz. 



I. Earth, or thofe fubftances which are not 

 ductile, are moftly indifibluble in water or 

 oil, andpreferve their conftitutionin a ftrong 

 heat *. 



&. Inflammables, which can be diflblved in 

 oils, but not in water, and are inflammable. 



3. Salts : thefe diflfolve in water, and give it 

 a tafte ; and when the quantity of water 

 required to keep them in diiToiution is eva- 

 porated, they concrete again into foiid and 

 angular bodies. 



4. Metals are the heavieft of all bodies hi- 

 therto known i fome of which are malleable, 



* The Author, by Earths, dors not mean (An&iy fpeak- 

 jng) only Earths, but includes all the kinds of" Hones or fof- 

 ijis not inflammable, faline, or metallic D. C. 



and 



