THE LITERARY 



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OF THE LINN.BAN ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Vol. if. APRIL, 1846. No. 6. 



PAL.55OXT0LOGY, OR FOSSIL REMAINS, NO. II. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Geology, properly so 

 called, made very great progress, and that which especially contributed 

 to it was the study of the distinctive characters of different rocks, and 

 the attempts made to classify them. Werner and de Saussure are the 

 two most prominent names of that epoch ; the first celebrated for his re- 

 searches on the stratified rocks and their super-position, and the latter 

 for his investigations of the primitive rocks. However intimately con- 

 nected with Palaeontology these geological discoveries may be, it would 

 lead us from our subject to dilate on them here ; we have nothing to do 

 at present with the disputes of the Vulcanistsand Neptunists, those two 

 rival schools, both of which, in their fierce contentions, over-leaped the 

 truth in fighting for victory. 



Much less can we here retrace the numerous and brilliant geological 

 discoveries which signalized the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 nor show the changes in the science and its onward march, wrought bv 

 the labors of Elie de Beaumont, Leopold de Buch, Lyell, Murchison, 

 &c. &c. We can only dwell on the progress of Palaeontology during 

 the same epoch. 



This study, then in its infancy, received at the beginning of this cen- 

 tury an impulse, and advanced in developement in a manner that is lare 

 in the history of science. It is to the genius of Cuvier that these changes 

 are due, and his researches on fossil bones will ever stand as one of the 

 most splendid monuments of the human mind. Nearly all the ideas, 

 the theories, and observations which have been developed, during the last 

 thirty years owe their origin to Cuvier's genius. It is the spirit of his 

 labors, which led to those numerous and remarkable discoveries, which 

 have astonished even men not devoted to scientific researches. 



It will not be superfluous to enter here into some details on the dis- 

 coveries of Cuvier. 



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