PKOSl^ECTIVE PROVISION FOR MAN. 555 
mineral veins were charged with their precious 
contents ; whether Segregation, or Sublimation, 
were the exclusive method by which the metals 
were accumulated ; or, whether each of the sup- 
posed causes may have operated simultaneously 
or consecutively in their production ; the exis- 
tence of these veins remains a fact of the highest 
importance to the human race : and although the 
-Disturbances, and other processes in which they 
originated, may have taken place at periods long 
antecedent to the creation of our species, we may 
reasonably infer, that a provision for the comfort 
and convenience of the last, and most perfect 
creatures He was about to place upon its surface, 
was in the providential contemplation of the 
Creator, in his primary disposal of the physical 
forces, which have caused some of the earliest, 
and most violent Perturbations of the globe.* 
* That part of the History of Metals which relates to their 
various Properties and Uses, and their especial Adaptation to the 
Physical condition of Man, has been so ably and amply illus- 
trated by two of ray Associates in this Series of Treatises, that I 
have more satisfaction in referring my readers to the Chapters of 
Dr. Kidd and Dr. Prout upon these subjects than in attempting 
myself to follow the history of the productions of metallic veins, 
beyond the sources from which they are derived within the body 
of the Earth. 
A summary of the all-important Uses of Metals to Mankind 
is thus briefly given, by one of our earliest and most original wri- 
ters on Physico-lheology. 
“ As for Metals, they are so many ways useful to mankind, 
and those Uses so well known to all, that it would be lost labour 
