Ian D. Rotherham and David McCallam
78
at the lowest geographical point, that is, in the low plains of Flanders.
9
For Buffon, the key aspect of this process of peat formation was the
rotting of organic matter underwater. If the same materials rotted on
land, he claims, they would only produce “du terreau et du limon”.
10
However, the water seals in the peat’s combustible elements, that is,
its share of “phlogiston”, the flammable substance or essence of fire
believed by contemporary science to be contained in all combustible
materials and released in all acts of combustion.
11 This, maintains
Buffon, would explain why peat makes such an excellent fuel once it
has rotted down and been dried out. According to Buffon’s theory,
peat formed under sea water is better than that formed under fresh water because the bitumen and salt content of seawater increases its
combustibility. Hence his confident assertion that Dutch sea-peat is
best, since “elles sont pénétrées du bitume dont les eaux de la mer sont
chargées”.
12
In fact, it appears to have been something of an eighteenthcentury French commonplace to associate Holland with the most advanced practices of peat-cutting and peat-burning. To take but one
example, Joseph de La Porte, abbé de Fontenai and Louis Domairon’s
astonishingly encyclopaedic Le Voyageur françois (1765-1795)
observes that nature has provided Holland with “une terre qui, coupée
en morceaux, & exposée au soleil, se durcit & brûle dans les foyers;
c’est ce qu’on appelle de la tourbe”.
13 He goes on to say that this
Friesland peat not only serves as domestic fuel but is also used in local
industries. Moreover, in a country devoid of trees and lacking coal,
this “substance inflammable” is a great resource for the working poor
___________________________
9 Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Histoire naturelle, générale et
particulière, 21 vols (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1749-1789); Supplément. Tome cinquième (1778), p. 470.
10 Buffon, Histoire naturelle, I (1749), p. 398.
11 For a fuller account of phlogiston theory and its demise, see The Overthrow of
Phlogiston Theory: The Chemical Revolution of 1775-1789, ed. James Bryan Conant
(Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1950).
12 Buffon, Histoire Naturelle: Supplément. Tome cinquième, p. 472. This passage is
supplementary to Buffon’s original discussion of peat in Volume I of the Histoire
naturelle (pp. 438-39) in which the author’s main concern is asserting that peat is in
fact a loose form of brown coal, in refutation of Claude-Léopold Genneté’s claim that
coal is a distinct rock type similar in its composition to clay.
13 Joseph de La Porte, abbé de Fontenai, Louis Domairon, Le Voyageur françois, ou
La Connoissance de l’ancien et du nouveau monde, 42 vols (Paris: Vincent; Moutard;
Cellot, 1765-1795), XX, pp. 323-24.
78
at the lowest geographical point, that is, in the low plains of Flanders.
9
For Buffon, the key aspect of this process of peat formation was the
rotting of organic matter underwater. If the same materials rotted on
land, he claims, they would only produce “du terreau et du limon”.
10
However, the water seals in the peat’s combustible elements, that is,
its share of “phlogiston”, the flammable substance or essence of fire
believed by contemporary science to be contained in all combustible
materials and released in all acts of combustion.
11 This, maintains
Buffon, would explain why peat makes such an excellent fuel once it
has rotted down and been dried out. According to Buffon’s theory,
peat formed under sea water is better than that formed under fresh water because the bitumen and salt content of seawater increases its
combustibility. Hence his confident assertion that Dutch sea-peat is
best, since “elles sont pénétrées du bitume dont les eaux de la mer sont
chargées”.
12
In fact, it appears to have been something of an eighteenthcentury French commonplace to associate Holland with the most advanced practices of peat-cutting and peat-burning. To take but one
example, Joseph de La Porte, abbé de Fontenai and Louis Domairon’s
astonishingly encyclopaedic Le Voyageur françois (1765-1795)
observes that nature has provided Holland with “une terre qui, coupée
en morceaux, & exposée au soleil, se durcit & brûle dans les foyers;
c’est ce qu’on appelle de la tourbe”.
13 He goes on to say that this
Friesland peat not only serves as domestic fuel but is also used in local
industries. Moreover, in a country devoid of trees and lacking coal,
this “substance inflammable” is a great resource for the working poor
___________________________
9 Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, Histoire naturelle, générale et
particulière, 21 vols (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1749-1789); Supplément. Tome cinquième (1778), p. 470.
10 Buffon, Histoire naturelle, I (1749), p. 398.
11 For a fuller account of phlogiston theory and its demise, see The Overthrow of
Phlogiston Theory: The Chemical Revolution of 1775-1789, ed. James Bryan Conant
(Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1950).
12 Buffon, Histoire Naturelle: Supplément. Tome cinquième, p. 472. This passage is
supplementary to Buffon’s original discussion of peat in Volume I of the Histoire
naturelle (pp. 438-39) in which the author’s main concern is asserting that peat is in
fact a loose form of brown coal, in refutation of Claude-Léopold Genneté’s claim that
coal is a distinct rock type similar in its composition to clay.
13 Joseph de La Porte, abbé de Fontenai, Louis Domairon, Le Voyageur françois, ou
La Connoissance de l’ancien et du nouveau monde, 42 vols (Paris: Vincent; Moutard;
Cellot, 1765-1795), XX, pp. 323-24.