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1. Observations concerning Fossil Organic Remains. By 

 J. C. DooRNiK, M. D. &c. * 2. Werner's Views of the Na- 

 tural History of Fossil Organic Remains. 3. Werner''s 

 Advice to Students of Geology. 



The study of fossil remains is, without doubt, one of the prin- 

 cipal branches of geology, one of the best established means for 

 explaining the most important phenomena connected with the 

 natural history of our earth. It is therefore of the utmost im- 

 portance that we should be familiar with the whole series of or- 

 ganic remains, before we form our ideas upon the subject in its 

 full extent, and before we allow ourselves to undertake an ex- 

 planation of the apparent labyrinth. 



Notwithstanding my conviction of the great utility of a tho- 

 rough knowledge of organic remains, as connected with the ge- 

 nera and species to which they belong ; the various localities 

 where they are found, and the situations which they occupy in 

 the different strata belonging to epochs so remote ; still I cannot 

 subscribe to the views of M. Cuvier, when he speaks of the high 

 importance of organic remains. 



" Do we not perceive," says he, " that to Jbssil remains 

 alone, is due the origin of the theory of the earth ; and that, 

 without them, we should possibly have never dreamed that 

 there had been in the formation of the globe successive epochs, 

 and a series of different operations.'''' 



Such a position, it seems to me, proves too much, and there- 

 fore nothing decidedly. 



After having read and meditated much upon it, I take the 

 liberty to ask M. Cuvier, if the knowledge we possess concern- 

 ing the various rock formations, the manifest differences in their 

 constituent parts, in the succession, alternation, and regular 

 occurrence of their strata ; that relating also to the obvious or- 

 der which reigns in the superposition of rocks, and the striking 

 instances of conformity, of identity, of equivalence, and paralle- 

 lism in these superpositions, proved by the researches of the 

 most able geologists, and found true in countries the most re- 

 mote from each other. I would ask, if such knowledge is not 

 • Silliman's American Journal, vol. xv. for October 1828. 



