74 J. C. Doornik on Fossil Organic Ketnains. 



of all that is at present known concerning organic remains, and 

 that our geological knowledge was limited to what we know of 

 those formations called primitive, transition, secondary and ter- 

 tiary, gathered from their conformation, structure, position and 

 mutual relations, — information purely geological ; that our 

 knowledge was confined to what has been observed concerning 

 the summits of mountains, their planes and bases, concerning 

 valleys and lakes ; and to the removal of immense masses of rock 

 to great distances ; is it probable that there could be a philoso- 

 pher found who would maintain, that this amount of knowledge 

 does not, or could not, contribute to furnish the materials for a 

 theory of the earth ? I cannot beheve it, or ever persuade my- 

 self, that M. Cuvier seriously meant to maintain such a proposi- 

 tion. His vast erudition in every thing which relates to physi- 

 cal science, forbids my believing it ; and I choose to think, that 

 the passages which have been cited are, so to speak, slips of the 

 lively pen of this justly celebrated author. 



A little farther on we read, " It is only by analogy that we 

 liave extended to primitive formations the conclusion, which or- 

 ganic remains furnish, directly for the secondary formations; 

 and if there had only existed formations without fossil remains, 

 110 one could have maintained that these formations had not been 

 simultaneous?^ 



Here I must commence with the same remark that I have 

 just made upon the first position, which is, that M. Cuvier as- 

 sumes infinitely more than sound logic will sustain him in do- 

 ing. I allude more particularly to the latter part of the above 

 quotation, where he says, " and if there had only existed for- 

 mations without fossil remains," &c. 



Truly, when this point shall be yielded to M. Cuvier, geolo- 

 gy will lose very much of its dignity ; for the science must then 

 acknowledge, that it owes every thing to our knowledge of or- 

 o-anic remains. But how shall we make a position of this sort 

 aoree with what we know concerning the constituent parts of 

 rocks of different composition — information derived entirely from 

 chemical analysis ? How shall we then dispose of our disco- 

 veries relating to tl'c different structure of formations, which are 

 MO geologically distinct, tliat ihey have based upon this circum- 

 stance the characters for distinguishing the formations .^ Is not 



