3_dly_, That the contained substances must have been in a fluid state,
in order to their crystallizing.
_Lastly_, That as this fluid state had not been the effect of solution
in a menstruum, it must have been fluidity from heat and fusion.
Let us now make one general observation and argument with regard to
the formation of those various coated, concreted, crystallized, and
configured bodies. Were the crystallization and configuration found
to proceed from a central body, and to be directed from that centre
outwards, then, without inquiring into collateral appearances, and other
proofs with regard to the natural concretion of those substances, we
might suppose that these concretions might have proceeded from that
central body gradually by accretion, and that the concreting and
crystallizing substances might have been supplied from a fluid which had
before retained the concreting substance in solution; in like manner as
the crystallizations of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
that saccharine substance, and are termed candies, are formed upon the
threads which are extended in the crystallizing vessel for that purpose.
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