• FOSSIL ALCYONIA. 33 



prepared as aforesaid, seems to possess the lingular quality 

 of being- almost imperishable. In addition to this quality, 

 the power of preserving potatoes in barrels, after being 

 kiln dried, either when whole or cut into parts, for the use 

 of the table in long voyages, is very important; and it 19 

 found, that, after being so preserved, they are capable of 

 being again boiled soft, and served up as a vegetable at ta- 

 ble, retaining much of their original flavour, consistence, 

 and other qualities. s 



Editor. 



(£5* For two valuable papers on the fecula of potatoes, and its uses, 

 fey Mr. W. Skrimshire, jun., see Journal, vol. XXI, p. 71 and 182. 



VI. 



On the Dissimilarity between the Creatures of the present 

 and former World, and on the Fossil Alcyonia. From 

 Parkinson s Organic Remains. 



lj)OME of the extraordinary circumstances which have ar- Great diisiml- 

 rested our attention, whilst examining into the nature of larit y between 

 fossil corals, now demand a few general remarks. You s il corals. 

 cannot but have observed how completely I was foiled, in 

 my attempt to preserve a parallel between the fossil corals 

 which I have particularised, and the several corals which 

 are enumerated in the Systema Naturce of Linnaeus. In- 

 deed, so little could this parallel be preserved, so little a- 

 greement could be traced between the recent and the fossil 

 corals, that I find myself under the necessity of acknow- 

 ledging, that I am not certain of the existence of the recent 

 analogue of any really mineralized coral. 



This dissimilarity between the creatures of this and the This inexpli- 

 creatures of the former world, is a circumftance which ap* cable. 

 pears to be so inexplicable, that I can only admit it, with* 

 out attempting to account for it. It however furnishes us, The present 

 I think, with a ftrong argument againft that theory, which state of our 

 supposes the changes which this planet has undergone are J2*: of°re u- 

 fcll attributable to the constant, regular, and gradual pro* lar workings of 



Vol. XXIII.— May, 1809. D cesses nature : 



