38 FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 
constantly nse coal, that we seldom think of its original formation, 
or of the hand that formed it ; and yet we could scarcely find in 
nature a greater proof of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator 
than in the ample provision he had made in the huwels of the earth 
for our advantage. He had no doubt that the lecture of the learned 
Professor would have the effect of causing them to think of coal, 
its origin, and its uses, with much juster views than they had been 
accustomed to. 
Professor Johnston then proceeded to deliver an elaborate and 
most interesting lecture on the origin of coal. He first proved, by a 
variety of botanical and chemical arguments, that it is of vegetable 
origin ; he then showed that it was formed by the decay of vegetable 
substances. In this branch of the enquiry, the Professor explained 
minutely the composition of different kinds of coal, and showed that 
the varieties are caused by the different stages of vegetable decay, 
to the continued progress of which operation, he attributed the gene- 
ration of the fatal gases that occur in coal mines. The last branch 
of enquiry was, whether the masses of vegetable matter which form 
coal had grown on the spot where they are deposited, or had been 
carried into hollows by inundations, and then settled in the masses 
in which they are found. The lecturer stated minutely the arguments 
alleged for and against each of these theories, and concluded that 
the balance of evidence was in favour of the theory that they had 
grown upon the spot. The lecturer concluded with a few observations 
on the vast masses of vegetable matter which had been laid up in 
store for the use of man, and the proof which the subject afforded of 
infinite wisdom and beneficent design. 
The Lecturer concluded a little before ten o'clock, when a vote 
of thanks was moved by Mr. Embleton, and seconded by Mr. Morton, 
who described the lecture as one of the most interesting and instructive 
discourses that he had ever heard or read on the subject. The table 
of chemical gTadations from vegetable matter, through the different 
varieties of lignite and brown coal, down to cannel, and true-caking 
coal, was both original and beautiful, and as clearly establislied the 
vegetable origin of coal, by chemical reasoning, as it had previously 
been proved by geological arguments. 
