Sept. 1 8, 1879] 



NATURE 



497 



plaint and Vindication of the Fislies," illustrated with good 

 plates. More, iii his work on "Marine Bodies which are 

 found in the Mountains," 1740, showed the effects of volcanic 

 action in elevating strata, and causing faults. Vallisneri had 

 studied with care the marine deposits of Italy. Donati, in 

 1750, had investigated the Adriatic, and ascertained by sound- 

 ings that shells and corals were being imbedded in the deposits 

 there, just as they were found in the rocks. 



John Gesner's dissertation, " De Petrificatis," published at 

 Leyden in 1758, was a valuable contriliution to the science, 

 lie enumerated the various kinds of fossils, and the different 

 conditions in which they are found petrified, and stated that 

 some of them, like those at Oeuingen, resembled the shells, 

 fishes, and plants of the neighbouring region, while others, such 

 as Ammonites and Belemnites, were either unknown species, or 

 those found only in distant seas. He discusses the structure of 

 the earth at length, and speculates as to the causes of changes in 

 sea and land. He estimates that, at the observed rate of reces- 

 sion of the ocean, to allow the Apennines, whose summits are 

 filled with marine shells, to reach their present height, would 

 have taken about eighty thousand years, a period more than 

 "ten times greater than the age of the universe." He accord- 

 ingly refers the change to the direct command of the Deity, 

 as related by Moses, that, " The waters should be gathered 

 together in one place, and the dry land appear." 



Voltaire (1694-1778) discussed geological questions and the 

 nature of fossils in several of his works, but his published 

 opinions are far from consistent. He ridiculed effectively and 

 justly the cosmogonists of his day, and showed, also, that he 

 knew the true nature of organic remains. Finding, however, 

 tliat theologians used these objects to confirm the Scriptural 

 account of the deluge, he changed his views, and accounted for 

 fossil shells found in the Alps, by suggesting that they were 

 Eastern species, dropped by the pilgrims on their return from 

 the Holy Land ! 



Buffon, in 1749, published his imix)rtant work on Natural 

 History, and included in it his "Theory of the Earth," in 

 \vhich he discussed, with much ability, many points in geology. 

 .Soon after the book was published he received an official letter 

 from the Faculty of Theology in Paris, stating that fourteen 

 propositions in his works were reprehensible, and contrary to 

 the creed of the Church. The first objectionable proposition 

 v.as as follows: "The waters of the sea have produced the 

 mountains and valleys of the land, — the waters of the heavens 

 reducing all to a level, will at last deliver the whole land over 

 to the sea, and the .sea successively prevailing over the land, 

 will leave dry new continents like those we inhabit." 



Buffon was politely invited by the college to recant, and 

 having no particular desire to be a martyr to science, submitted 

 the following declaration, which he was required to publish in 

 his next work: " I declare that I had no intention to contra- 

 dict the text of bcriptttre ; that I believe most firmly all therein 

 related at>out the creation, both as to order of time and matter 

 of fact ; and I abandon everything in my book respecting the 

 formation of the earth, and, generally, all which may be 

 contrary to the narration of Moses." 



This single instance will suffice to indicate one great obstacle 

 to the advancement of science, even up to the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. 



Another important work apj>eared in France about this time, 

 Bourgnet's "Traite des Petrifactions," published in 1758, which 

 is well illustrated with faithful plates. In England, a discourse 

 on earthquakes, by Dr. Robert Hooke, was published in 1705. 

 This author held some views in advance of his time, and main- 

 tained that figured stones were "really the several bodies they 

 represent or the mouldings of. them petrified, and not, as some 

 have imagined, a lusiis natunc, sporting herself in the needless 

 formation of useless things." He 'anticipates one important 

 conclusion from fossil?, when he states that " though it must 

 be very difficult to read them and to raise a chronology out of 

 them, and to state the intervals of time wherein such or such 

 catastrophes and mutations have happened, yet it is not im- 

 possible." He also states that fossil turtles and such large 

 Ammonites as are found in Portland, seem to have been the 

 productions of hotter coimtries, and hence it is necessary to 

 suppose that England once lay under the sea within the torrid 

 zone. He seems to have suspected that some of the fossils of 

 England belonged to extinct sjiecies, but thought possibly they 

 might be found living in the bottom of distant oceans. 



Dr. Woodward's "Natural History of the Fossils of Eng- 



land" appeared in 1729. This work was based on a systematic 

 collection of fossils which he had brought together, and which 

 he subsequently bequeathed to the University of Cambridge, 

 where it is still preserved, with his arrangement carefully 

 retained. The descriptive part of this work is interesting, but 

 his conclusions are made to coincide strictly with the Scriptural 

 account of the creation and deluge. He had previously stated, 

 in another work, that he believed, ' ' the whole terrestrial globe 

 to have been taken to pieces and dissolved at the flood, and the 

 strata to have settled down from this promiscuous mass." In 

 .•iupport of this view, he stated that, "Marine bodies are lodged 

 in the strata according to the order of their gravity, the heavier 

 shells in stones, the lighter in chalk, and so of the rest."' 



The most important work on fossils published in Germany 

 at this time, was that of George Wolfgang Knorr, which was 

 continued after his death by Walch. This work consisted of 

 four folio volumes, with many plates, and was printed at 

 Nuremberg, 1755-73. -^ large number of fossils were accu- 

 rately figured and described, and the work is one of permanent 

 value.^ A French translation of this work appeared in 

 1767-78. Burton's " Oryctographie de Bruxelles," 1784, con- 

 tains figures and descriptions of fossils found in Belgium. 



Abraham Gottlieb Werner (1750-1S17), Professor of Min- 

 eralogy at Freyberg, did much to advance the science of geology, 

 and indirectly, that of fossils. He first indicated the relations 

 of the main formations to each other, and, according to his 

 pupil. Prof. Jameson, first made the higUy important obser- 

 vation "that different formations can be discriminated by the 

 petrifactions they contain." Moreover, "that the petrifactions 

 contained in the oldest rocks are very different from any of the 

 species of the present time ; that the newer the formation, the 

 more do the remains approach in form to the organic beings 

 of the present creation." Unfortunately, Werner published 

 little, and his doctrines were mainly disseminated by his enthu- 

 siastic pupils. 



The great contest between the Vulcanists and the Neptunists 

 started at this time, mainly through Werner, whose doctrines 

 led to the controversy. The comparative merits of fire and 

 water, as agencies in the formation of certain rocks, were dis- 

 cussed with a heat and acrimony characteristic of the subject 

 and the time. Werner believed in the aqueous theory, while 

 the igneous theory was especially advocated by Hutton of Edin- 

 burgh and his illustrator, Playfair. This discussion resulted 

 in the advancement of descriptive geology, but the study of 

 fossils gained little thereby. 



The "Protogoea" of Leibnitz, the great mathematician, pub- 

 lished in 1749, about thirty years after his death, was a work 

 of much merit. This author supposed that the earth had 

 gradually cooled from a state of igneous fusion, and was subse- 

 quently covered with water. The subsidence of the lower part 

 of the earth ; the deposits of sedimentary strata from inunda- 

 tions, and their induration, as vvell as other changes, followed. 

 All this, he supposed to have been accomplished in a period of 

 six natural days. In the same work Leibnitz shows that he 

 had examined fossils with considerable care. 



Linnaeus (1707-1778), the famous Swedish botanist, and the 

 founder of the modern system of nomenclature in Natural 

 History, confined his attention almost entirely to the living 

 forms. Although he was familiar with the literature of fossil 

 remains, and had collected them himself, he did not include 

 them in his system of plants and animals, but kept them sepa- 

 rate, with the minerals ; hence he did little directly to .advance 

 this branch of science. 



During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the belief 

 that fossil remains were deposited by the deluge sensibly declined, 

 and the dawn of a new era gradually appeared. Let us pau^e 

 for a moment here and see what real progress had been made ; 

 what foundation had been laid on which to establish a science of 

 fossil remains. 



The true nature of these objects had now been clearly deter- 

 mined. They were the remains of animals and plants. Most 

 of them certainly were not the relics of the Mosaic deluge, 

 but had been deposited long before, part in fresh water and 

 part in the sea. Some indicated a mild climate, and .•■ome the 

 tropics. That any of these were extinct species, was as yet 

 only suspected. Large collections of fossils had now been 

 made, and valuable catalogues, well illustrated, had been pub- 



' "Ess.iy towards a Natural History of the Earth." 1605. 

 » " L.-ip!des ex celebcrr. viror. scnlenua diluvii universalis testes, qucs in 

 ordines ac species distribuit, suis caloribus exprtrait, etc." a?" Tab. I755-73- 



