Note 5 — Proofs that there have been Revolutions anterior to the existence of living beings.

The conjecture of the Marquis de la Place, that the materials of which the globe is composed, have perhaps existed at first in the elastic form, and have successively assumed a liquid consistence on cooling, and have at length been solidified, is well supported by the recent experiments of M. Mitscherlich, who has composed, of all sorts of substances, and crystallized by the heat of intense furnaces, several of the mineral species which enter into the composition of primitive mountains.—Note D.