One would
have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the operations of
subterraneous fire, would have perceived, that there is but one general
principle of fluidity or dissolution, and that this is heat.]
Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous bodies, which is
indirect, arising from the in dissolubility of that substance in water,
there is another, which is more direct, being founded upon appearances
which are plainly inconsistent with any other supposition, except that
of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof I mean is, the penetration
of many bodies with a flinty substance, which, according to every
collateral circumstance, must have been performed by the flinty matter
in a simply fluid state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.
These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in strata both of chalk and
sand. It requires but inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
that flinty matter could be conveyed into the middle of those strata, by
a menstruum in which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in that place,
without the smallest trace of deposition in the surrounding parts.
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