VI PREFACE. 



to this branch of natural history by philoso- 

 phers in England ; and the : Memoirs of M. 

 Graydon, in the Transactions of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, show that it was not entirely neglect- 

 ed in Ireland. On the continent of Europe the 

 natural history of petrifactions was also much 

 studied, as appears from the Memoirs of Holl- 

 uian, Beckman, and Blumenbach, in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society of Gottingen ; 

 of Gmelin, Pallas, Herrmann, Chappe, in the 

 Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Science 

 of Petersburg!! ; of Geoffroi, Buffon, Dauben- 

 ton, Faujas, St. Fond, and others of the old 

 French Academy of Sciences ; of A^sturc and 

 Riviere, of the Royal Academy of Sciences of 

 Montpellier ; of Collini, of the Academia Theo- 

 doro-Palatina, at Manheim, $c. But the geog- 

 nostical relations of the rocks in which these 

 organic remains are contained were but ill un- 

 derstood, until Werner pointed out the mode 

 of investigating them. His interesting and im- 

 portant views* were circulated from Freyberg, 



* See Note L. 



