Notice of Dr. MantelVs Medals of Creation. Ill 



conveniently distributed under three divisions — viz. index of 

 scientific names, index of places, index of matters in general. 



Thus we have presented the author's own map of his subject, 

 and rarely can we find a work which is a more perfect example 

 of the art of book-making in the best understanding of that ap- 

 pellation ; we mean technically and mechanically, as well as 

 intellectually, " The Medals of the Creation" are among the chef 

 d'oeuvres of the art, and the two volumes being elegantly bound 

 in stamped and embossed covers, of the still portable size of the 

 larger 12mo, will and must take their place as the companions, 

 not only of the geologist in his study, but in the field, while 

 they will also accompany the general travellers of both sexes as 

 most instructive companions and mentors in their journeys among 

 the grand and beautiful features of the globe. 



The Wonders of Geology, by Dr. Mantell, a work already 

 well known to our readers, is about to appear in a new edition, 

 and this with the Medals will form four uniform volumes, and 

 the two works will mutually illustrate each other. 



From chapter first of the Medals, "on the nature and arrange- 

 ment of the British strata and their fossil contents," we make 

 the following citations. 



The globe consists of minerals and fossils ; minerals are form- 

 ed by chemical or electro-galvanic laws — fossils are the remains 

 of animals and vegetables imbedded in the strata, and more or 

 less altered by physical laws. The softer parts are usually de- 

 composed soon after death, but the firmer structures, such as the 

 bones and teeth of animals, and the woody fibre of vegetables, 

 often endure for many centuries ; and, in favorable circumstances, 

 as with deep interment, away from the atmosphere, and when 

 impregnated with mineral substances, even the most perishable 

 tissues are preserved, and being transformed into stone they be- 

 come as enduring as the rocks themselves, of which they often 

 form a principal part. 



Certain animal substances are even more enduring than vege- 

 table ; and the shields of animalcules, composed of silica, or flint, 

 (or iron?) become absolutely indestructible, and exist in such in- 

 conceivable quantities as almost to justify the apparently extrav- 

 agant assumption of some naturalists of the last century, " that 

 every grain of flint, lime, and iron, may have been elaborated 

 by the energies of vitality." 



