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notions, from his having attributed to the waters of the deluge, an 

 almost universal solvent power ; by which he supposed the rocks and 

 mountains were melted down, and thus allowed the admission of 

 these substances into their external parts : not considering that, by 

 the same power, these bodies would themselves have been reduced 

 to a mass, not bearing their proper figures. 



Nothing, perhaps, contributed so much towards diffusing a proper 

 idea respecting the origin of these substances, as the Historia Anima- 

 lium Anglice which contained some excellent remarks, De lapidibus 

 ejusdem Insulce ad Cochlearum quandam Imaginemjiguratis. Lond. 1678 ; 

 and the Historia sen Synopsis methodica Conchy liorum, 1685, all writ- 

 ten by Dr. Lister. By these publications the student was enabled to 

 form a comparison, between the original shell, and the similar shell 

 in a fossil state ; since, in several instances, the Doctor had display- 

 ed in his plates, the same shell in both states. How much this must 

 have contributed to producing a just judgment, of the real nature 

 and origin of these substances, must be obvious ; and to this circum- 

 stance, perhaps, we ought in part to attribute the change of opi- 

 nion, which very generally took place at this period. Still, however, 

 the science was involved in that cloud, which had so long obscured 

 it. The vis plastica, the vis formativa, and the sportive creations of 

 nature, werfe terms yet in frequent use. Those that were more than 

 half convinced, but had not quite shaken off the influence of a long 

 adopted opinion ; as well as those who, though quite convinced, had 

 not the courage to acknowledge having been in error ; spoke of these 

 bodies in the indefinite language of lapi des figurati, lapides idiomor- 

 phi, lapides qui jiguram habent concha, cochlece, $c. Some indeed 

 would venture to term them conchce lapidece, ostrece lapidece, $c. care- 

 fully avoiding to speak of their origin, or to admit them to be 

 bodies, changed from their original animal state to that of stone. 



Careful investigation, however, having rendered it manifest, 

 that these substances were neither the productions of chance, nor 



