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In 1743, on occafion of conferring a degree on 

 Dr. J, JVeJiman^ the profeflbr delivered his third 

 Oratio^^ de ^elluris habit abilis i?i€remento : an 

 elaborate and ingenious defence of that hypo* 

 thefis, which Sir Ifaac Newtvn^ and feveral other 

 philofophers, have inclined to, *' That the pro- 

 portion of water on the globe of this earth is 

 conftantly decreafing." This leads the pro- 

 fefTor alfo to difcufs the i^ad fedion of the 

 Fbilofophia— Initio rerum ex omni fpecie viventium 

 iinicum ferns par creatum fuijfe fuadet Vatio. — ^The 

 vifible receffion of the waters of the fea in divers 

 parts of the earth, particularly apparent in the 

 Baltic^ had inclined the Swedijh philofophers to 

 this opinion of Sir Ifaac Newton's. The pofition 

 of xkit Philofophia^ he thinks naturally deducible 

 from the foregoing hypothefis, and neceflarily fo 

 from the Mofaic hiftory. In folving the difficul- 

 ties attending the latter part of the hypothefis, he 

 is led by his fubjed to enter largely into a part of 

 the economy of, nature, which renders his dif- 

 courfe highly interefting, independently of all con- 

 jedlures relating to the main argument : this re- 

 lates to the various ways in which vegetables are 

 diffeminated, and by which they find their way 

 to every part of the globe. To this efFed winds, 

 rain, rivers, the fea, animals, &:c. are all fubfer- 

 vient, as well as the various ftrudlure and pro^ 

 perties of the feeds themfelves ; in illuftrating 

 which laft affair the profefTor has taken great 

 pains, and conftruded tables of the genera, founded 

 on thefe different properties of the feeds. In the 

 introduftion to this oration, our author turns the 



attention 



