364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



important results than in France. An extensive work on this subject, 

 by James Parkinson, entitled '' Organic Remains of a Former World," 

 was begun in 1804, and completed in three volumes in 1811. A second 

 edition appeared in 1833. This work was far in advance of previous 

 publications in England, and, being well illustrated, did much to make 

 the collection and study of fossils popular. The belief in the geologi- 

 cal effects of the deluge had not yet lost its power, although restricted 

 now to the later deposits ; for Parkinson, in his later edition, wrote as 

 follows : " Why the earth was at first so constituted that the deluge 

 should be rendered necessary — why the earth could not have been at 

 first stored with all those substances and endued with all those prop- 

 erties which seemed to have proceeded from the deluge — why so many 

 beings were created, as it appears, for the purpose of being destroyed 

 — are questions which I presume not to answer.*' 



William Buckland (1784-1856) published in 1823 his celebrated 

 " Reliquiffi Diluvianse," in which he gave the results of his own obser- 

 vations in regard to the animal remains found in the caves, fissures, 

 and alluvial gravels of England. The facts presented are of great 

 value, and the work was long a model for similar researches. Buck- 

 land's conclusions were, that none of the human remains discovered in 

 the caves were as old as the extinct mammals found with them, and 

 that the deluge was universal. In speaking of fossil bones found in 

 the Himalaya Mountains, he says : "The occurrence of these bones 

 at such an enormous elevation in the region of eternal snow, and con- 

 sequently in a spot now unfrequented by such animals as the horse and 

 deer, can, I think, be explained only by supposing them to be of ante- 

 diluvian origin, and that the carcasses of the animals were drifted to 

 their present place, and lodged in sand, by the diluvial waters." 



The foundation of the " Geological Society of London," in 1807, 

 marks an important point in the history of paleontology. To care- 

 fully collect materials for future generalizations was the object in 

 view, and this organization gradually became the center in Great 

 Britain for those interested in geological science. The society was in- 

 corporated in 1826, and has since been the leading organization in 

 Europe for the advancement of the sciences within its field. The Geo- 

 logical Society of France, established at Paris in 1832, and the German 

 Geological Society, founded at Berlin in 1848, have likewise con- 

 tributed largely to geological investigations in these countries, and to 

 some extent in other parts of the world. In the publications of these 

 three societies the student of paleontology will find a mine of valua- 

 ble materials for his work. 



The systematic study of fossil plants may be said to date from the 

 publication of Adolphe Brongniart's " Prodrome," in 1828.* This was 

 very soon followed by his larger work, " Histoire des Vegetaux Fos- 

 * " Prodrome d'une Ilisfoire des Vegetaux Fossiles," 8vo, Paris, 1828. 



