14 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG I 



laws of physiological correlation, about which, in 

 most cases, we know nothing whatever, that the so- 

 called restorations of the palaeontologist are based. 



Abundant illustrations of this truth will occur 

 to every one who is familiar with paleontology ; 

 none is more suitable than the case of the so- 

 called Belemnites. In the early days of the study 

 of fossils, this name was given to certain elon- 

 gated stony bodies, ending at one extremity in a 

 conical point, and truncated at the other, which 

 were commonly reputed to be thunderbolts, and 

 as such to have descended from the sky. They 

 are common enough in some parts of England; 

 and, in the condition in which they are ordinarily 

 found, it might be difficult to give satisfactory 

 reasons for denying them to be merely mineral 

 bodies. 



They appear, in fact, to consist of nothing but 

 concentric layers of carbonate of lime, disposed in 

 subcrystalline fibres, or prisms, perpendicular to 

 the layers. Among a great number of specimens 

 of these Belemnites, however, it was soon observed 

 that some showed a conical cavity at the blunt 

 end ; and, in still better preserved specimens, this 

 cavity appeared to be divided into chambers by 

 delicate saucer-shaped partitions, situated at 

 regular intervals one above the other. Now there 

 is no mineral body which presents any structure 

 comparable to this, and the conclusion suggested 

 itself that the Belemnites must be the effects of 



