62 Structure of a peculiar Combustible Mineral, 
public or private feeling of opposition to their opinions that I 
appear before you this night. 
I will not dwell long upon the subject, as it must be very 
clear to you all — first, that the specimens examined by these 
gentlemen must have had more or less of plant structure im- 
bedded in them ; secondly, that they have evidently mistaken 
the peculiar arrangement of the combustible and earthy por- 
tions of the mineral for vegetable cellular tissue. Thirdly, 
they can certainly never have examined sections of many 
coals microscopically, as one and all tell you that they saw 
the same structure in the mineral as they did in coals. Had 
they made sections of coal in two directions, at right angles 
to each other, they could hardly have failed in seeing, almost 
at a glance, how much the sections differed in structure the 
one from the other. That such is really the case, even in the 
coals which they state in their evidence they have examined, 
may be shown by reference to Plate IV. In fig. 1 is repre- 
sented a transverse section of the so-called brown methil ; 
and in fig. 2, a longitudinal section of the same. The two 
structures are so different in appearance, that, had such 
sections been made, I feel confident there could not have 
been a second opinion on the subject. In fig. 3 is shown a 
transverse section of the black methil, and in fig. 4 a longi- 
tudinal section. The differences, if anything, are even more 
striking than in the brown methil. But what will be said 
of figs. 5 and 6, which represent a transverse and longitudinal 
section of Lesmahagow cannel coal ? That anything at all 
resembling such a structure as this, can be found in sections 
of the mineral in question, except when coal is present, I 
emphatically deny. 
Now, granting for a moment that the structure of the 
mineral be cellular, what plants, I would ask, could the cells 
have belonged to? Can any botanist produce a single 
instance of a recent or fossil plant of the same thickness* as a 
seam of the Torbanehill mineral, which shall be made up of a 
mass of cellular tissue, that is, without vessels or woody fibres 
being present with the cells ? 
Again, if the structure be cellular, we should expect to find 
the most durable part of the cell — the cell wall — always pre- 
sent, which is not the case. If this view be correct, the yellow 
particles being solid must be the contents of cells, they cer- 
tainly cannot be cells. The cell-wall also, as far as we know 
it, in recent and fossil plants, always presents on section a 
more or less uniform thickness and a homogeneous appear- 
ance ; whereas the structure around the yellow particles in all 
cases, except where plants are present, is minutely granular, 
