FOSSILS AND GIANTS. 33 



while according to Fallopio, of Padua, petrified 

 shells were produced by the " tumultuous move- 

 ments of the terrestrial exhalations." Olivi, of 

 Cremona, considered fossils as mere lusus natures, 

 or " sports of nature," while others regarded 

 them as mere stones which " had assumed their 

 peculiar configuration by the action of some oc- 

 cult 'internal principle' from the influence of 

 the heavenly bodies;" and others still maintained 

 that they were bodies formed by nature " for no 

 other end than to play the mimic in the mineral 

 kingdom." 



That such fanciful notions regarding the nature 

 of fossils could ever have been seriously entertained 

 by men of sound judgment now seems almost inex- 

 plicable. But if we reflect a moment we shall see 

 that almost equally ridiculous views of nature are 

 held by even eminent men of science at the present 

 day. As for the students of nature who lived some 

 centuries ago, it may be pleaded in extenuation of 

 the errors into which they lapsed, that some of the 

 theories which they deemed to be beyond question 

 appeared to give color to their beliefs. 



Among these was the theory of spontaneous gen- 

 eration, or the theory that certain living plants and 

 animals are produced spontaneously from inorganic 

 matter, or spring from organic matter in a state of 

 decomposition. And then, too, they were confirmed 

 in their views by observing the peculiar forms as- 

 sumed by stalactites and stalagmites which grew 

 under their very eyes ; by the strange figures found 

 in agates, notably the moss agate, and the still 



E.-3 



