ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG. 147 



every one who is f amilar with palaeontology ; none is 

 more suitable than the case of the so-called Belemnites. 

 In the early days of the study of fossils, this name was 

 given to certain elongated stony bodies, ending at one 

 extremity in a conical point, and truncated at the other, 

 which were commonly reputed to be thunderbolts, and 

 as such to have descended from the sky. They are 

 common enough in some parts of England ; and, in the 

 condition in which they are ordinarily found, it might 

 be difficult to give satisfactory reasons for denying them 

 to be merely mineral bodies. 



They appear, in fact, to consist of nothing but con- 

 centric layers of carbonate of lime, disposed in sub- 

 crystalline fibres, or prisms, perpendicular to the layers. 

 Among a great number of specimens of these Belem- 

 nites, however, it was soon observed that some showed 

 a conical cavity at the blunt end; and, in still better 

 preserved specimens, this cavity appeared to be divided 

 into chambers by delicate saucer-shaped partitions, situ- 

 ated at regular intervals one above the other. Now 

 there is no mineral body which presents any structure 

 comparable to this, and the conclusion suggested itself 

 that the Belemnites must be the effects of causes other 

 than those which are at work in inorganic nature. On 

 close examination, the saucer - shaped partitions were 

 proved to be all perforated at one point, and the per- 

 forations being situated exactly in the same line, the 

 chambers were seen to be traversed by a canal, or si- 

 phuncle, which thus connected the smallest or apical 



