It has been one of
the objects of this work to show that this operation of incrustation,
or petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether ineffectual for
producing mineral concretions; and that, even were it capable of forming
those mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of this earth, formed
by a deposit of travelled materials at the bottom of the sea, the
conditions necessary to this incrustating process do not take place.
Those enlightened naturalists who have of late been employed in
carefully examining the evidences of mineral operations, are often
staggered in finding appearances inconsistent with the received doctrine
of infiltration; they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions, in
order to explain that enigma. In giving examples of this kind. I have in
view both to represent the natural history these mineralists furnish
us with, which is extremely interesting, and also to show the various
shapes in which error will proceed, when ingenious men are obliged to
reason without some necessary principle in their science. We have just
now had an example in Europe; I will next present the reader with one
from Asia.
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