i Guettard's Paleontology 27 



dealing with fossil organisms is a long paper in three parts, 

 which appeared in 1765 under the title, " On the Accidents 

 that have befallen Fossil Shells compared with those which 

 are found to happen to Shells now living in the Sea." 1 

 In spite of his own and earlier writings, many observers 

 continued to believe that the apparent shells found in the 

 rocks of the land never really belonged to living creatures, 

 but were parts of the original structure of the earth. It 

 is incredible how long this belief lasted, and what an 

 amount of energy had to be expended in killing it. I 

 have been told that even within the present century a 

 learned divine of the University of Oxford used to maintain 

 his opinion that the fossils in the rocks had been purposely 

 placed there by the devil to deceive, mislead and perplex 

 mankind. In Guettard's days another opinion of a contrary 

 tendency was promulgated by a Swiss naturalist, Bertrand, 

 who suggested that the fossil plants and animals had been 

 placed there directly by the Creator, with the design of 

 displaying thereby the harmony of His work, and the 

 agreement of the productions of the sea with those of 

 the land. 



It is difficult, perhaps, to imagine ourselves in the 

 position of naturalists about the middle of last century, 

 to whom such opinions seemed perfectly logical, natural 

 and probable. Yet unless we make the effort to realize 

 the attitude of men's minds in those days, we cannot 

 rightly appreciate the acumen and sagacity of the argu- 

 ments with which Guettard assailed these opinions. In 

 much detail, and with many admirable illustrations drawn 

 from his personal observations all over France, he demon- 



1 Trans. Acad. Roy. Sciences (1765), pp. 189, 329, 399. 



