438 TUE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



tecnth century, Pfeiffer, "General Superintendent" or bishop in those 

 parts, published a book entitled " Pausophia Mosaica," calculated, as 

 he believed, to beat back science forever. In a long series of declama- 

 tions he insisted that in the strict text of Genesis alone is safety ; that 

 it contains all wisdom and knowledge, human and divine ; that twenty- 

 eight articles of the Augsburg Confession are to be found in it ; that 

 it is an arsenal of arguments against all sects and sorts of " Atheists, 

 Heathen, Jews, Turks, Tartars, Papists, Calvinists, Socinians, and 

 Baptists" ; the source of all sciences and arts, including law, medicine, 

 philosophy, and rhetoric ; " the source and essence of all histories and 

 all professions, trades, and works " ; " an exhibition of all virtues and 

 vices " ; " the origin of all consolation." * This being the case, who 

 could care to waste time on the study of material things and give 

 thought to the structm-e of the world ? Above all, who, after such a 

 proclamation by such a ruler in the Lutheran Israel, would dare to talk 

 of the "days" mentioned in Genesis as "periods of time" ; or of the 

 "firmament" as not meaning a solid vault over the universe ; or of 

 the " waters above the heavens," as not contained in a vast cistern 

 supported by the heavenly vault ; or of the " windows of heaven " as 

 a figure of speech ? 



In England the same spirit was shown even as late as the time of 

 Sir Matthew Hale. We find in his book on the " Origination of 

 Mankind," published in 1685, the strictest devotion to a theory of 

 creation based upon the mere letter of Scripture, and a complete in- 

 capacity for the attainment of knowledge regarding the earth's origin 

 and structure by any scientific process. 



Still, while the Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Anglican reformers 

 clung to literal interpretations of the sacred books, and turned their 

 faces away from scientific investigation, it was among their contempo- 

 raries at the coming in of the modern period with the revival of 

 learning that there began to arise fruitful thought in this field. Then 

 it was, about the beginning of the sixteetith century, that Leonardo da 

 Vinci, as great a genius in science as in art, broached the true idea as 

 to the origin of fossil remains ; and his compatriot, Fracastoro, de- 

 veloped this on the modern lines of thought. Others in other parts 

 of Europe took up the idea, and, while mixing with it many crudities, 

 evolved from it more and more truth. Toward the end of the six- 

 teenth century Bernard Palissy, in France, took hold of it with the 

 same genius which he showed in artistic creation ; but, remarkable as 

 were his assertions of scientific realities, they could gain little hearing. 

 Theologians, philosophers, and even some scientific men of value, un- 

 der the sway of scholastic phrases, insisted upon such explanations as 

 that fossils were the product of " fatty matter set into a fermentation 

 by heat"; or of a "lapidific juice" ;f or of a "seminal air"; J 

 or of a " tumultuous movement of terrestrial exhalations " ; and there 

 * See ZiJcklcr, vol. i, pp. C88, 689. \ " Succus lapidificus." % " Aura semlnalis." 



