How coal, an infusible substance, could be spread into
strata by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."--It is only upon the
last sentence that I am here to remark: This, I believe, will be a
sufficient specimen of our author's understanding, with regard at least
to my Theory which he is here examining.
The reader will see what I have said upon the subject of coal, by
turning back to the second section of the preceding chapter. I had given
almost three quarto pages upon that subject, endeavouring to explain how
all the different degrees of _infusibility_ were produced, by means of
heat and distillation, in strata which had been originally more or less
oily, bituminous, and _fusible_; and now our author says, that it is
incomprehensible to him, how coal, _an infusible substance_, could be
spread into strata by mere heat.--So it truly may, either to him or to
any other person; but, it appears to me almost as incomprehensible, how
a person of common understanding should read my Dissertation, and impute
to it a thing so contrary to its doctrine.
Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived view that our author
seems to have taken of the two opposite theories, (_i.
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