Ill 



Fuchsel 101 



remembered for the place which he assigned to organic 

 remains in his theoretical views of the past history of the 

 earth. He clearly recognized these objects as relics of 

 once living things. He saw that the Coal was dis- 

 tinguished by its land-plants, the Zechstein by its gryphites, 

 the Muschelkalk by its ammonites ; further, that some 

 formations contained only marine remains, others only 

 terrestrial, and thus that the latter point to the neighbour- 

 hood of ancient land, while the former indicate the 

 presence of the sea. 



The clear and detailed evidence brought forward by 

 Lehmann and Fuchsel, that the materials of the terrestrial 

 crust had not been thrown down at random, but succeeded 

 each other in a certain definite order, and contained a 

 record of former processes and changes, like those in pro- 

 gress now, ought to have given a great forward impetus to 

 the study of the history of the earth. Lehmann's work, 

 however, was not in itself attractive, and Fuchsel's first 

 essay, though by far the most detailed and philosophical 

 treatise on the subject that had yet appeared, was written 

 in Latin and buried in the publications of an obscure 

 Society. Fuchsel himself lived quietly in a little town, 

 with no disciples to spread his doctrines, so that his very 

 name remained hardly known even in Germany, while 

 other and much inferior writers achieved a wide reputa- 

 tion. His writings seem to have dropped out of sight, 

 until they were unearthed and brought to notice fifty- 

 seven years after his death by Keferstein. The seed 

 sown by Lehmann and Fuchsel was thus long in spring- 

 ing into abundant growth. During the remainder of 

 last century the idea of geological succession was pro- 



