76 . III. DIST. CHAR. Prototype. 



The original body ( C. originate ) is the indi- 

 vidual from which the fossil has received its form. 

 Hence, the original is to the prototype, what the 

 individual is to the species. 



The prototype and the original are to he dis- 

 tinguished,, L according to their kind (i.e. class, 

 genus, or species, &c. ) and, 2. according to thepart, 

 which has communicated their form to the reli- 

 quium. 



a. Kind. 



According to which the prototype is either an ani- 

 mal or a vegetable. 



A. 47. ANIMALS (Animalia] giving form to 

 reliquia, are mammalia, birds, amphibia, fishes, in- 

 sects and -worms. 



only one side of the original form, the other being lost in 

 the matter of the surrounding stone so that the stem, or other 

 vegetable body, appears as if it had been divided longitudinally 

 into two parts, before its mineralization. It may be somewhat dif- 

 ficult to explain the exact mode of formation, on which this ap- 

 pearance depends; but, we conceive it to be owing to the unequal 

 hardening of the enclosing stratum the lapidification of which 

 has been sooner effected on one side of the organic body, than 

 on the other. Hence, the stone has retained the impres- 

 sion of that side of the vegetable, &c. on which it was first 

 formed; while, on the other side,the decay of the organic body being- 

 previous to the consolidation of the mineral matter, the vegetable 

 form has been lost, in the soft mass of the matrix, forced by corn- 

 pressure laterally into the concavity formed in the hardened part of 

 the s)Lone. In this process it is evident, as in other nucleated relics, 

 more or less of the original matter may remain, and cover the 

 surface of the petrifaction. 



