80 



one of these bodies as nux moschcata fructu rotundo. Gasp. Bauhin*. 

 Scheuchzer, on the authority of Volkraann, adopted the same 

 figure and description. Nor will this error be considered as without 

 excuse, when the great resemblance of many of these substances to 

 terrestrial fruits is shewn. Indeed, I much suspect that, after all the 

 circumstances have been examined, some persons will be found who 

 will not be readily disposed to consider substances, bearing such ap- 

 pearances, as subjects of the animal kingdom. The propriety how- 

 ever of doing this will perhaps appear, when other bodies will be shewn 

 passing, through almost insensible gradations, from these bodies, which 

 so closely approximate, in their general appearances, to the subjects of 

 the vegetable kingdom, up to others, whose characters are sufficiently 

 marked, to leave no doubt whatever in the mind as to their animal 

 origin. 



No one I believe has been more industrious, or more successful in 

 their inquiries, respecting these bodies than M. Guettard, as appears 

 by his very ingenious Essay, Sur qudques Corps Fossiles pen connus, in 

 the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris for the Year 175?. 

 M. Guettard observes, that at Verest, near Tours and Saumur, and at 

 Montri chard, in Touraine, there are found, at some depth in the 

 earth, numerous bodies, which from their very close resemblance, in 

 figure, to figs, pears, oranges, and other fruits, are there considered as 

 fruits, which, having fallen from their trees, have been buried in the 

 earth, where they have undergone the process of petrifaction. These 

 bodies, it appears, not only differ very much from each other, in 

 their forms, but also in their structure : and in Mons. Guettard's judg- 

 ment are divisible into two kinds ; those which possess somewhat of a 

 globular form, and those which are conical or funnel-formed. 



The former, he observes, may be divided into the body or glo- 

 bular part, and the pedicle or elongated part. In the centre of 



* Silesiae Subterraneae. Tab. XXII. Fig. 6. 



