THE EVOLUTION IDEA 119 



Da Vinci (1452-1519) 



Among such interdicted observations were 

 those of the new science of pala;ontolog>%^ in 

 which the incomparable Leonardo da Vinci was 

 a pioneer. As cited by Lyellr* 



It was not till the earlier part of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury that geological phenomena began to attract the 

 attention of the Christian nations. At that period a 

 very animated controversy sprang up in Italy, con- 

 cerning the true nature and origin of marine shells, 

 and other organised fossils, found abundantly in the 

 strata of the peninsula. The celebrated painter Leo- 

 nardo da Vinci, who in his youth had planned and 

 executed some navigable canals in the north of Italy, 

 was one of the first who applied sound reasoning to 

 these subjects. The mud of rivers, he said, had cov- 

 ered and penetrated into the interior of fossil shells 

 at a time when these were still at the bottom of the 

 sea near the coast. 'They tell us that these shells were 

 formed in the hills by the influence of the stars ; but 

 I ask where in the hills are the stars now forming 

 shells of distinct ages and species? and how can the 

 stars explain the origin of gravel, occurring at dif- 

 ferent heights and composed of pebbles rounded as 

 if by the motion of running water ; or in what man- 

 ner can such a cause account for the petrifaction in 

 the same places of various leaves, sea-weeds, and ma- 

 rine crabs ?' 



1 Compare Osborn: Palaeontology. Enc. Brit., vol. 20, p. 681. 



2 Charles Lyell: Principles of Geology, 1877, vol. 1, pp. 30, 31. 



