598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and he, too, insisted that the fossils were produced by the Deluge. 

 Strengthened by his great authority, the assault on the true scientific 

 position was strong : Mazurier exhibited certain fossil remains of a 

 mammoth discovered in France as bones of the giants mentioned in 

 Scripture ; Father Torrubia did the same thing in Spain ; Increase 

 Mather sent to England similar remains discovered in America, with a 

 like statement. 



For the edification of the faithful, such " bones of the giants men- 

 tioned in Scripture" were hung up in public places. Jurieu saw some 

 of them thus suspended in one of the churches of Valence ; and 

 Henrion, apparently under the stimulus thus given, drew up tables 

 showing the size of our antediluvian ancestors, in which the height of 

 Adam was given as 123 feet 9 inches, that of Eve as 118 feet 9 inches 

 and 9 lines,* 



But the most brilliant service rendered to the theological theory 

 came from another quarter ; for, in 1726, Scheuchzer, having discov- 

 ered a large fossil lizard, exhibited it to the world as the "human 

 witness of the Deluge " ; f this great discovery was hailed everywhere 

 with joy, for it seemed to prove not only that human beings were 

 drowned at the Deluge, but that "there were giants in those days." 

 Cheered by the applause thus gained, he determined to make the 

 theological position impregnable. Mixing together various texts of 

 Scripture with notions derived from the philosophy of Descartes and 

 the speculations of Whiston, he developed the theory that " the foun- 

 tains of the great deep " were broken up by the direct physical action 

 of the hand of God, which, literally applied to the axis of the earth, 

 suddenly stopped the earth's rotation, broke up " the fountains of the 

 great deep," spilled the water therein contained, and produced the 

 Deluge. But his service to sacred science did not end here, for he 

 prepared an edition of the Bible, in which magnificent engravings 

 in great number illustrated his view and enforced it upon all readers. 

 Of these engravings no less than thirty-four were devoted to the 

 Deluge alone.J 



In the midst of this war appeared an episode very comical but very 



* See Cuvier, "Rccherchcs sur les Ossements fossilcp," fourth edition, vol. vii, p. 56 ; 

 also, Geoffroy St.-IIilaire, cited by Bcrger de Xivrcy, " Traditions teratologiques," p. 190. 



f " Homo diluvii testis." 



\ See ZiJckler, vol. ii, p. 172. For the ancient belief regarding giants, see Leopardi, 

 "Saggio." For accounts of the views of Mazurier and Scheuchzer, see Cuvier; also, 

 BiJchner, " Man in Past, Present, and Future," Engli.sh translation, pp. 235, 236. For 

 Increase Mather's views, see " Philosophical Transactions," vol. xxiv, p. 85. As to similar 

 fossils sent frona New York to the Royal Society as remains of giants, see Weld, 

 "History of the Royal Society," vol. i, p. 421. For Father Torrubia and his "Giganto- 

 logia E^paiiola," see D'Archiac, " Introduction h I'Etude de la Pal^ontologic stratogra- 

 phique," Paris, 1864, p. 201. For admirable summaries, see Lycll, " Principles of 

 Geology," London, 1867; D'Archiac, " G6ologie et Paleontologic," Paris, 1866; Pictet, 

 " Traite de Paldontologie," Paris, 1853 ; Vezian, " Prodrome de la G6ologie," Paris, 1863 ; 

 Haeckel, "History of Creation," English translation. New York, 1876, chapter iii; and, 



