1804.] - 
more full and decifive evidence on the 
fubject, fome of the particulars will be 
found erroneous, The Elephant, it was 
aflerted, would never couple in a ftate of 
domefticity. This was afcribed to the 
moft elevated fentiments, which, could 
they be proved, would indeed place this 
animal tar above the level of the com. 
mon nature of brutes. Buffon obferves, 
‘« that to be agitated by the moft ardent 
defires and to deny themfelves the fatis- 
faction of enjoying them; to love fu- 
rioufly and preferve modelty, are perhaps 
the laf efforts of human virtue ; which 
in this majeftic animal are all fuggefted 
by inftinét, Enraged that he cannot gra- 
tify his defires without witneffes, his fury, 
ftronger than his paffion, deltroys the 
effects of the latter, provokes at the fame 
time his anger, and is the caufe that, in 
thefe inftants, the Elephant is more dan- 
gerous than any other wild animal.” 
The Britith dominions in India, contain 
thoufands of living witnefles to the falfity 
of this account.—The fafcinating power 
afcribed to the Rattle Snake and other 
Serpents, was faid not only to affect 
Hares, Squirrels, Partridges and the like, 
in fuch a manner as to make ‘them run 
dire&tly into their mouths, but even to 
extend its influence to the human tpecies. 
The inquiries of Dr. Barton, and Mr. 
Rittenhoufe in America, where there mut 
be the beft opportunities for afcertaining 
the fact, have, however, fhown that this 
extraordinary circumftance may be reiolvy- 
ed jnto the expreffions of fear common 
to molt {mall animals when their own life 
or that of their young is in danger. 
There are other accounts whica cannot 
be called exaggerations, for, having 
been built on’a talle foundation, they are 
found to be wholly erroneous. Of this 
kind is the opinion which was very com- 
monly entertained previous to the dif- 
covery of the analogy between lightning 
and the electric fluid, of the fall of 
Thunder bolts. The form or fubftance of 
this body, which was fuppeied to be 
generated in the air during thunder- 
ftorms, and to be the inftrument of the 
mifchief they fometimes ,cccafion, was 
wholly undetermined, though, from the 
great number of thunder-ftorms which 
have happened fince the creation, it might 
have been fuppofed they could not be 
very {carce in any country. Some years 
-ago I was fhown, by a collector of natural 
‘curiofities, feveral tones which he affirmed 
were thunder-boits, though they evidently 
were nothing more than common black 
flints. which happened to be merely fimilar 
Vulgar Errors in Natural Hiffory, 
-rocks. 
AD 
in form, and of which many more might 
have been readily found in almoft any of 
our chalk-pits, This reputed concretion 
of lightning, or caput mortuum of th¢ 
explofion, or whatever elfe it was con- 
ceived to be, was not, however, always a 
flinty {ubftance ; the Philofophical Tranf- 
actions for 1738 contain an account of a 
{mall ball of fulphur found after a ftorm 
in the Ifle of Wight, and fuppofed to 
have been generated in the air. But we 
well know the difcharge of a thunder- 
cloud has no tendency to form fuch bo. 
dies, and that if it had, they muft have ~ 
been very frequently. found and confe-~ 
quently well known to us. 
The opinion of the petrifaction of Wa- 
ter, appears equally unfounded with the 
foregoing, altacugh fome years fince it 
was adopied by naturalifts, and is fill 
current in thofe parts of England where 
StalaGtites and other fparry concretions 
are found. Dr. Plott (in his Hiftory of 
Oxfordfhire) {peaking of Stalattites, fays, 
that the very body of the water is turned 
into ftone as it drops down from the ~ 
It does not require an acquaint- 
ance with modern experiments on the 
compofition or decompofition of water, 
to be convinced that an unconfined fluid 
cannot be petrified, and, that, though 
water is the vehicle in forming fparry 
concretions and incruftations, it does not 
enter into their compofition in a greater 
degree than into that of moft. other 
mineral fubftances. The petrifying qua- 
lity afcribed to the water of Lough-neagh 
lake in Ireland, arofe entirely trom the 
circumftance of confiderable quantities of 
foffil wood having been tound on the 
fhores .of it; but that the water itfeif 
contains no fuch quality, has been fully 
proved by experiments made for the pur- 
pote. 
In fome inftances, the improbability 
of the afferted fact juftly excites doubts 
refpeGtine it, although it may be of a 
nature which renders it very difficult to 
afcertain the truth; fuch is the opinion 
of no venemous animal living tn Ireland ; 
which implies the improbable circum- 
fiance of fomething in the foil or climate 
of that ifland fo cflentially different from 
this country, that animals which feel no 
inconvenience here could not exiit there. 
We are far from certain that even of 
the few venemous animals of this country 
there are none in the interior part of 
Ireland: but even if this is-really the 
cafe, it may be merely the confequence 
of its beimg an ifland, and there may be 
others equally fortunate in this refpect ; 
nor 
