PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCO VERY, 



225 



shells and fishes to be due to a " i)lastic virtue, latent in the earth," as 

 Theophrastus had suggested long before. Lhwyd, in his " Lithophy- 

 lacii Britannici Ichnographia," published in Oxford in 1699, gives a 

 catalogue of English fossils contained in the Ashmolean Museum. He 

 opposed the vis plastica theory, and expressed the opinion that the 

 spawn of fishes and other marine animals had been raised with the va- 

 pors from the sea, conveyed inland by clouds, and deposited by rain, 

 had permeated into the interior of the earth, and thus produced the 

 fossil remains we find in the rocks. About this time several impor- 

 tant works were published in England by Dr. Martin Lister, which 

 did much to diffuse a true knowledge of fossil remains. He gave fig- 

 ures of recent shells side by side with some of the fossil forms, so that 

 the resemblance became at once apparent. The fossil species of shells 

 he called " turbinated and bivalve stones," and adds, " either these 

 were terriginous, or, if otherwise, the animals which they so exactly 

 represent have become extinct." 



During the seventeenth century there was a considerable advance 

 in the study of fossil remains. The discussions in regard to the nature 

 and origin of these objects had called attention to them, and many 

 collections were now made, especially in Italy, and also in Germany, 

 where a strong interest in this subject had been aroused. Catalogues 

 of these collections were not unfrequently published, and some of 

 them were illustrated with such accurate figures, that many of the 

 species can now be readily recognized. In this century, too, an im- 

 portant step in advance was made by the collection and description of 

 fossils from particular localities and regions, in distinction from gen- 

 eral collections of curiosities. 



Casper Schwenkfeld, in IGOO, published a catalogue of the fossils 

 discovered in Silesia ; in 1G22 a detailed description of the renowned 

 Museum of Calceolarius, of Verona, appeared; and in 1642 a catalogue 

 of Besler's collection. Wormius's catalogue was published in 1652, 

 Spener's in 1663, and Septala's in 1666. A description of the Muse- 

 um of the King of Denmark was issued in 1669, Cottorp's catalogue 

 in 1674, and that of the renowned Kirscher in 1678. Dr. Grew gave 

 an account in 1687 of the specimens in the Museum of Gresham's Col- 

 lege in England ; and in 1695 Petiver, of London, published a cata- 

 logue of his very extensive collection. A catalogue by Fred. Lauch- 

 mund, on the fossils of Hildesheim, appeared in 1669, and the fos- 

 sils of Switzerland were described by John Jacob Wagner in 1689. 

 Among similar works were the dissertations of Gyer, at Frankfort, 

 and Albertus, at Leipsic. 



Steno, a Dane, who had been Professor of Anatomy at Padua, 

 published in 1669 one of the most important works of this period.* 

 He entered earnestly into the controversy as to the origin of fossil re- 



* " De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento." 

 VOL. XTI. — 15 



