Miscellaneous, 513 



placed in analogous circumstances, they pass into a stony state and 

 become petrified like the greater part of the organic remains of geo- 

 logical periods, which have been immersed in salt or fresh water. 



Lastly, I have observed in the same collection, urns and amphorae 

 of Roman origin, which, when drawn from the Mediterranean, pre- 

 sented incrustations of various thicknesses, but of considerable soli- 

 dity. These stony deposits, like those already mentioned, contained, 

 imbedded in their substance, petrified shells. Their surfaces also 

 were covered with polypes, SerpulcBy and Anomice, which, not being in 

 the least altered, must have been living when these vases were taken 

 out of the sea. It is to be presumed that similar facts are much more 

 common than I had supposed, when commencing my researches on 

 the petrifaction of the shells of our epoch. It is therefore to be 

 hoped that naturalists living in sea-ports or near large collections 

 will devote their attention to these phsenomena, which possess the 

 greatest interest, as establishing an evident relation between what is 

 now taking place in the world and the events which occurred in a 

 world when no human being was an eye-witness. 



An objection has been raised to my observations which does not ap- 

 pear to me to be well-founded, considering the facts referred to in my 

 previous researches. It has been supposed that the shell-grit which is 

 constantly in course of formation in the present seas, and the petri- 

 factions which are found in it, are deposits of the tertiary epoch ; but 

 to render this a serious objection, it would be necessary that the or- 

 ganized bodies thrown out upon their shores by the Mediterranean, 

 and probably by other seas, should belong to that geological period. 

 Now, every one knows that all the organized bodies which I have 

 noticed in my previous researches, as well as those which I have just 

 mentioned in this note, belong to existing species, and have never 

 been met with, at least up to the present time, in the tertiary forma- 

 tions, — so, as long as they shall not be found there, they must be 

 considered as belonging to the present period, because we observe 

 them in nature. 



Some persons, admitting that these facts prove incontestably that 

 shells become petrified in our existing seas, have supposed that they 

 must be regarded as fossils, because they have been transformed into 

 new inorganic elements, and become petrified in the true acceptation 

 of this term. Those who have raised this objection have added that 

 it was instilled into them by Cuvier, who considered petrified bodies 

 as true fossils. 



It may be observed, that the state, in which fossil organized bodies 

 are presented to us, is of no use in the determination of the period in 

 which they were interred, and can teach us nothing relative to their 

 date. In fact, a great many species of the tertiary formations still 

 retain their shell, and are less altered than those which I have laid 

 before the Academy, for they are not petrified at all. Therefore we 

 must only regard as fossils those organic remains which are found in 

 geological deposits. This mode of thinking has led me to designate 

 the subfossil organized bodies by the name of humatiles ; they belong 

 principally to the alluvial and diluvial deposits. — Biblibthkque Uni- 

 verselle, March 1852. 



