Naiices respecting New Books: 231 



Eossil remains, and the actually existing animals, of the 

 order oi' zuophytcs. 



" Tliat, in the stupendous changes which this plantt has 

 undergone, several species of bi:ings endued with vegetable 

 ur animal life should have become extinct, is by no means, 

 inconsistent with the conclusions to wliich an uiibiassed 

 consideration of tb"se grand events would lead. The dis- 

 cov^eries, therefore, in the vestiges of a former world, of the 

 remains of innumerable vegetables and animals, such as 

 would constitute a prodigious number of species, and such, 

 as, according to the strict laws of arrangement, might be 

 even disposed in new and distinct genera, alihoaa;h quite; 

 uaexpected, is not in contradiction to what, o\\ retlection, 

 wc should have admitted, might, from the iuiiuence of par- 

 ticular circumstances, have occurred. But a fact has beeu 

 establishtd in the former and in the present volume, to the 

 tApectation of which no chain of reasoning could have led. 

 Of the numerous vegetables and aannals wiih which ttie 

 earth is at present furnished, the mineralized remains of very 

 few species indeed can be found ; of nian himself, the mi- 

 neral world presents not a smgle trace — an explanation of 

 which I in vain attempted in the preceding volume. 



" Whilst instancing this wonderful want of accordance 

 of the mineralized organic remains of a former period, with 

 xhose beings which are known now to exist, I shall hvre 

 confine myself to such facts only .is have been noticed whilst 

 examining the fossil bodies which have engaged our atten- 

 tion in the present volume. 



" The examination of fossil corals was commenced, as 

 may be seen, wath the expectation of being able to preserve 

 somewhat of a parallelism between the corals ol this and 

 those of the former world. But it soon became necessary 

 to abandon this attempt, it appearing that oi the fossil corals, 

 which, it may be said, have been onlv fortuitously dis- 

 covered, many more species have existed than are known of 

 even the recent corals, wlileh, I'rom their beauty and various 

 other circumstances, have been so long and so assiduously 

 collected. This aoancionment was further authorized by lis 

 also ajipcaring, on comparison, that scarcely any specitic 



l^ 4 an;reemeut 



