Dr. Maniell’s Notice of Molluskite. 243 
Art. Il.—WNotice of “ Molluskite,” or the fossilized remains of 
the soft parts of Mollusca; by Giron Aucernon Manre.u, 
Esq., LL. D., F.R.S., G.S., &e. 
[Read before the Geological Society of London, January, 1843.] 
Since the interesting discovery by Dr. Buckland of the nature 
and origin of the fossil remains termed coprolites, substances hav- 
ing the same general appearance and composition, but destitute 
of the spiral structure, and distributed in amorphous masses in 
the strata, have commonly béen placed in the same category 
under the name of pseudo-coprolites. 
In the blocks of firestone or upper green sand, which are seen 
at low water along the shore at Southbourne in Sussex, con- 
cretions of this kind are thickly interspersed among the shells 
which abound in those rocks. In my earliest geological research- 
es along the Sussex coast, these fossil bodies particularly arrested 
my attention, but I failed to obtain any clue to their origin, until 
the important memoir on coprolites by Dr. Buckland, pointed out 
the right path of enquiry, and offered a satisfactory solution of a 
problem which had baffled the attempts of previous observers. 
That a large proportion of the concretionary and nodular mass- 
es of the substance in question is the mineralized egesta of fishes 
and other marine animals, there can be but little doubt ; although 
it is rarely possible to detect the traces of intestinal structure 
which are so commonly impressed, more or less distinctly, on the 
coprolites of the chalk, wealden, and lias. But in the rocks at 
Southbourne, instances are not unfrequent in which the copro- 
litic matter (I use the term for the sake of convenience) occurs 
in the state of casts of shells belonging to the genera Cucullea, 
Venus, 'Trochus, &c., which abound in the firestone ; and in these 
examples the substance appears to have originated from the soft 
bodies of the mollusca. In Sussex, in the layers of firestone 
which occur at the line of junction with the galt, pseudo-copro- 
lites are very abundant. They are not uncommon in the beds 
of galt, at Ringmer and Norsington near Lewes, and at Bletching- 
ly in Surrey ; and they abound in the same argillaceous deposit 
at Folkstone in Kent. Dr. Fitton, in his elaborate memoir on 
the strata below the chalk, (Geological Transactions, Vol. LV, part 
2, page 111,) has given an accurate description and analysis of 
