ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN,

HE honour which you are doing to the fubjects which are to be treated in your prefence, and to the person who has undertaken the task, demands an acknowledgment previous to every thing else. Should this be neglected, a favourable judgment of the performance might juftly be forfeited. When knowledge is rated below its value by many, the fearchers into it fhould highly efteem thofe, who pay regard to their fearches. Approbation being a laudable encouragement to human actions, it is never more fo, than when it proceeds from the opinion of the difcerning few. That which is commonly called tafte, and adorns a character in one point of view, is a facility of right judgment in a particular art. The Painter, Statuary and Poet, are fpirited in the execution of their works, by the taste of those, who justly admire their arts: And he who means to examine the material world, for the arcana of nature, is happy in finding thofe, who may approve his pains, elfe he may grow languid in the purfuit.

Such you have declared yourselves, and as fuch, you are highly efteemed by him, to whom you have done honour; whofe ambition, after profeffing his gratitude, is to deferve that approbation, which you have fhewn fo prompt a difpofition to give,

LECTURE IV.

TH

HE papers which have been written, and publifhed in the philofophical tranfactions of the Royal Society upon the fubjects now to be treated, are a fufficient proof of the admiration which they have excited in the minds of the curious; and are therefore a proper apology for thefe Lectures; which fhould have been fpared, if former inquiries had been fuccefsful. Since every particle of matter affords a large fund of meditation to the wifeft man, fuch congeries of them, in forms extremely different from the common affociations of matter, deferve attention in a fingular manner. For fuch rare phænomena feem provi dentially to be scattered through the univerfe, to awaken mankind from that kind of ignorant lethargy, which an unchangeable uniformity is apt to occafion.

We look at the daily fun without any furprize, and the regular returns of darkness with the fame unaffecting indifference; but such a day! as Jofua faw could roufe mankind to attention, and a fhort night of eclipfe can awaken the mind to the ftudy of nature.

Was it common for ftones to vegetate in form of plants, or for matter to be caft in pillars imitating human art; neither the petrifications of the Irish lake, nor the causeway, (a) which for its ftupendous fabric, is thought the work of giants, would have any wonder in them: But they being extremely different from productions in the common courfe of nature, have drawn many perfons from diftant parts to view them, have excited fome to defcription, and fome to philosophy.

What

(a) The Giants Caufe way in the County of Antrim, is fo well known a phenomenon, than to fuppofe the reader ignorant of it, would not be a compliment.. See p. 2. Maik. Led.)

What esteem this present attempt to philosophize after those of ingenious men, who have already tryed, may deferve, muft depend upon what fhall hereafter be delivered, and your judgment upon it. Nothing fhall be faid with defign to confirm or contradict, any former hypothefis of any other perfon; nor fhall your time be taken up with arguments, to invalidate the opinions of former writers upon thefe matters; meaning that what fhall be delivered here, fhall at leaft give the pleasure of novelty without contentious difpute.

All the circumftances of the phænomena, which make the fubject of these lectures, and were very lately difcovered, fhall be fairly laid be fore you, together with fuch reafoning upon them, as feem confiftent with true philofophy, that is, with the courfe of nature.

It may be proper to acquaint you in refpect to the petrifications, which fhall first be treated of, that all those who have philofophized upon that fubject, have reafoned without ever having been able to procure the fight of any one fpecimen of wood or ftone continuous, except one gentleman (d) who having received abundance of fpecimens and alfo remarks from the prefent Inquirer, was enabled to fend prefents of the petrifications abroad, to make fome experiments upon them at home," and to draw up a fhort treatife, which makes the laft paper upon this fubject, in the tranfactions of the Royal Society; in which paper there is mention made of the prefent Inquirer, and a fort of promife for the exccution of what is now doing (e). It is hoped nothing will be found herein, that will in any degree throw difcredit upon that gentleman's performance; he had only an imperfect account of things, and never had an ocular view of the places of production of the petrifications. For most of the phænomena hereafter mentioned, were discovered fince the publication of that paper.

There being therefore no account of these phænomena hitherto given to the world, upon real obfervations of the facts, in many important circumstances, be pleased to accept of the best, which the prefent Inquirer with great fubmiffion to your judgments, attempts to give after much

labour,

(d) This gentleman is fpoken of in the laft lecture as having excellent abilities and inclination for natural inquiries.

1

(e) See Addrefs page 15.

Fabour, expence and extraordinary fuccefs in his fearches. This account will confift of anfwers to the following QUERIES.

Whether there be any fpecimen of wood and ftone continuous, fo clear and diftinct, that there can be no room to doubt of the nature of either?

If there be fuch, what qualities have they?

Where are they found?

To what caufe is the production of them to be affigned?

Is that caufe peculiar to the water of the lake?

What kind of wood admits of petrification?

In what time is the petrification effected?

And in what place?

The first queftion admits of a direct anfwer, that there are great variety of fpecimens of wood and ftone continuous, fo clear and diftinct, that there can be no room to doubt of the nature of either: That they are not incrustations, but tranfmutations, and incorporations of one into the other (e): For you see the table covered with them; and as you have full liberty of handling, and breaking, and cutting, and chewing, and burning them, you have alfo full information that one part of each mafs is a firm compact weighty ftone, the other is a fibrous combustible wood. Of this kind indifputable specimens are laid before you, from 7oolb. weight to one ounce.

The

(e) When the fluids of the human body can become bone, and in fome cafes become ftone, and the bones of the human body become foft as wax, as has happened to fome perfons. even in a living state; and can easily be reduced to a gelly in Papins digefter, when a petrified cruft grows fometimes on the teeth which must be filed off: Who fhould wonder at the concretions of matter here treated of. For the truth of the fact of the human body. turning almost totally into bone; the offified man in Doctor Barry's cuftody is a proof: (See a fhort account of this in the Natural and Civil history of the county of Corke, and fomething alfo forward in this lecture; and for the truth of the affertion that the folids of the human body, may become foft and liquifie, the reader is referred to Spend's travels, who gives a memorable account to this purpofe.

Notwithstanding all this, the world is not difpofed to believe the less furprizing phænomena of wood becoming ftone As may appear from the laft book, published in Paris upon the fubject of Natural Philofophy, which are come to us with a high reputation."

On parle d'un lac en islande qui pétrifie, le lac Néagh en Irlande a auffi la même propriété mais ces pétrifications produites par l'eau des lacs, ne font, fans doute autre chofe que des incrustations comme celles que fait l'eau d'Arcueil. Hiftoire Naturelle, &c..

Par. M. De Buffoon, A. Paris 1749.