I do not pretend that we
understand mineral fusion; but only that such mineral fusion is a thing
demonstrable upon a thousand occasions; and that thus is to be explained
the petrification and consolidation of the porous and naturally
incoherent strata of the earth.]
There is, however, a subject in which I can more freely accuse this
author of being deceived. This naturalist says, that calcareous stones
become silex by a certain chemical operation; and that those flinty
bodies, in being exposed upon the surface of the earth, out of their
natural bed, are again, by a contrary chemical operation, changed from
flint to a calcareous substance. I will give it in his own words, (p.
56.)
"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progenere de chaux, detache de son
lieu natal, et expose aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit, recoit de
crevasses, perd sa transparence, devient, enfin, tout-a-fait opaque, le
phlogistique s'en evapore, l'acide en est detache, lave, et de
terre vitrescible, qu'il etoit, il redevient chaux, comme il etoit
auparavant."
Here is no question with regard to mere opinion, but to matter of fact;
and, in this case, nothing is more evident, than that upon the surface
of this earth, that is, in the examinable parts above the level of the
sea, there is no transition either of calcareous bodies into flint,
nor of flinty bodies into calcareous substance.
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