Ma 



Microscopical Essays.. 



each other.* But it is certain fome other agent mud be concern- 

 ed in this operation befides mere attraction, otherwife all faks 

 would cry flail ize in the fame manner. Others have, therefore, 

 had rccourfe to fome kind of polarity in the particles of each fait, 

 which determined them to arrange themfelves in fuch a certain 

 form; but unlefs we give a reafon for this polarity, we only ex- 

 plain cryflallization by itfelf. One thing feems to have been, 

 overlooked by thofe who have endeavoured to invefligate this 

 fubject, namely, that the faline particles do not only attract one 

 another, but they alfo attract fome part of the .water which, 

 diffolves them, 



Did they only attract each other,, the fait, inflead of cryflal- 

 lizing, would fall to the bottom as a powder ; whereas, a faline 

 eryflal is compofed of fait and water, as certainly as the body of 

 an animal is compofed of flefh and blood, or a vegetable of folid 

 matter and fap ; if a faline eryflal is deprived of it's aqueous part^ ; 

 it will as certainly lofe its cryftalline form as, if it was deprived of 

 the faline part. It is, therefore, not improbable, that cryftallizar 

 tion is a fpecies of vegetation, and is accomplished by the fame 

 powers to which the growth of plants and animals are to be. 

 a (bribed. Some kinds of cryflallization refemble vegetation fo 

 much, that we can fcarce avoid attributing them to the fame- 

 caufe. 



It has been imagined, that all the great operations in nature 

 may be reduced to two principles, thofe of cryflallization and 

 organization ; but that often they are fo concealed as to be in- 

 visible,. 



* Encyclopedia Britannica, p. 2329. 



