An idea of an artificial arrangement of fossils, according to unalterable characters, and superadded qualities : also of a natural method, according to their ascent towards their greatest perfection / By Sir John Hill.

Date:
1774
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An idea of an artificial arrangement of fossils, according to unalterable characters, and superadded qualities : also of a natural method, according to their ascent towards their greatest perfection / By Sir John Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ ^3 ] We find hollow Cryftals, and we have hol¬ low Pyramids of Spar ; but ’tis a rafh Thought, tho’ of a great Man, to imagine that a Cryftal of Salt was firft formed in thefe Cafes; and when the ftony Coat was finished over, it- melted away again : This is Imagination : But there is not a hollow Staladite that may not fhew the Senfes, and convince the Reafon, that this Shell of Spar, or Cryftal, may be formed without a folid Nucleus. There are no entire Rocks of Spar; and they who thought they had feen fuch of Cryftal, perhaps miftook pure Ice for them. Both Spar and Cryftal rife in general from foul Stones ;v and they who thought Ice grew to them in Time, were fcarce more pardonable than fuch as took Ice for them. Scbeukzer has feen the Difficulty of accounting for their Forms, and joined the Lamentation of Philo-? fophers upon that Subjed , for the Salt Syftem was not then in being: But the old Pliny has not only lamented this Difficulty, but affigned its Caufe; and this a Caufe to overthrow that Syftem utterly: It is, that tho’ the Figures be all regular, they are not all alike y or all re^ folvable into the fame Laws. ’Tis an invidious Office, and unpleafing, to dwell upon the Errors of thofe who wrote be¬ fore ; but thefe are fo received, and fo efta^ blifhed, that there is no other Way to Truth. Wallerius fays, that Spar is compofed of fhombic and pyramidal Particles: And there- C 4 for?
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