Xll PREFACE TO THE 



of Sloane, Collinson, Lister, Derham, Baker, 

 Grew, Hunter, Jacobs, Plott, Camper, and 

 many others, afforded satisfactory proofs 

 of the importance attached to this branch 

 of Natural History by philosophers in Eng- 

 land ; and the Memoirs of M. Graydon, in 

 the Transactions of the Royal Irish Acade- 

 my, shew that it was not entirely neglected 

 in Ireland. On the continent of Europe the 

 natural history of petrifactions was also 

 much studied, as appears from the Memoirs 

 of Hollman, Beckman, and Blumenbach, 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 Gottingen ; of Gmelin, Pallas, Herrmann, 

 Chappe, in the Memoirs of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences of Petersburg ; of 

 Geoffroi, Buffon, Daubenton, Faujas St 

 Fond, and others of the old French Acade- 

 my of Sciences ; of Astruc and Riviere, 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Mont- 

 pellier ; of Collini of the Academia Theo- 

 doro-Palatina, at Manheim, &c. But the 

 geognostical relations of the rocks in which 



