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Analysis of the Protogea of Letbnitz. 63 
nety, shape, color, and other properties which are so well marked, 
that the species can be studied in the rocks as well as in a cabinet. 
Some of them are entire and others broken, and sometimes there is 
merely a cast; they are not therefore, a simple and direct product 
of nature. ‘They have no roots, but are separated by well defined 
limits from the rock in which they lie. The more accurately they 
are examined, the stronger will be the conviction that they are real 
remains, whereas, the representations of men and buildings some- 
times found in the rocks must be viewed at a distance, or the illusion 
vanishes. ‘Their number, and that the species is not known to exist 
in the living state as is the case with the cornu Ammonis, is no objec- * 
tion. ‘They may have been accumulated on certain points by cur- 
rents, and brought from distant regions or the dephts of the sea that 
have never yet been explored. Analogues of the mineral species 
are detected in greater numbers as observations are more extended 
amongst the living races. In proportion as men are more diligent in 
the business of observation and better acquainted with nature, they 
are more apt to adopt the opinion espoused by Leibnitz. Such as 
embrace different views are deceived by the fables of Kircher, Be- 
cher and others, who find not only plants and animals but historical 
facts exhibited in the rocks, and tell of whole fields strewed with the 
leg bones of giants. ‘These remains are quite distinct from certain 
crystals that are mentioned, and the other geometry of inanimate 
hature,* The glossopetra of Luenberg, are described and stated 
to be shark’s teeth and not to differ from those of Malta, that are so 
much valued for their medicinal properties—they may not be alto- 
gether without virtue as a medicine. Sect. 33 is a long enumeration 
and description from Lachmann of different species of shells—34. 
nes, apparently of the elephant, found in the caves and laid 
re by the rivers of Germany. The ivory tusks dug up in Russia 
and America may belong to the Walrus. If they are real elephant’s 
bones, the habits of the animal or the condition of the earth must 
have changed, so that the limits beyond which he does not range must 
More confined than formerly, or they may have been transported 
from a distance.—35. Of the remains of an unicorn dug up in Ger- 
Many—fabulous, judging from the figure, and in bad taste, inasmuch 
as it violates Horace’s rule of not associating discordant organs In the 
same animal, 
Pit res 
P . . o> 
* ** Caeteramque omnem natura inanime geometriam. 
