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Ch. III.) 



LEONARDO DA VINCI. 



31 



brated painter Leonardo da Vinci, who in his youth had 

 planned and executed some navigable canals in the north of 

 Italy, was one of the first who applied sound reasoning to 

 these subjects. The mud of rivers, he said, had covered and 

 penetrated into the interior of fossil shells at a time when 

 these were still at the bottom of the sea near the coast. 

 < They tell us that these shells were formed in the hills by 

 the influence of the stars ; but I ask where in the hills are 



the stars 



■mm 



and how can the stars explain the origin of gravel, occurring 

 at different heights and composed of pebbles rounded as if 



manner 



a cause account for the petrifaction in the 



same 



mar 



The excavations made in 1517, for repairing the city of 



multitude 



and furnished matter 



authors, 



t 



that fossil shells had 



animals 



formerly lived and multiplied where their exuviae are 



now found. He 



to the < plastic force ' of Theophrastus (see above, p. 20) which 

 had power to fashion stones into organic forms ; and with 



arguments, demonstrated the futility of 



That 



no less cogent ar^ 



attributing the situation of the shells in question to the 



Mosaic deluge, athe( 

 inundation, lie observed, was too transient; it consisted 

 principally of fluviatile waters ; and if it had transported 

 shells to great distances, must have strewed them over the 

 surface, not buried them at vast depths in the interior of 

 mountains. His clear exposition of the evidence would have 

 terminated the discussion for ever, if the passions of mankind 

 had not been enlisted in the dispute ; and even though doubts 



time 



* See Venturi's extracts from Da 



f Museum CalceoL— See Brocchi's 



Vinci's MSS. now in Library of Insti- Discourse on the Progress of the Study 



tute of France. They are not mentioned of Fossil Conchology in Italy, where 



bv Brocchi, and my attention was first some of the following notices on Italian 



called to them by Mr. Hallam. L. da writers will be found more at large. 

 Vinci died a.d. 1519. 



