Ch. III. J 



STENO.— SCILLA. 



37 



I 











and twice with an irregular and uneven surface.* 



He 



played great anxiety to reconcile his new views with Scrip- 

 ture, for which purpose he pointed to certain ^ rocks as 

 having been formed before the existence of animals and 

 plants : selecting unfortunately as examples certain forma- 

 tions of limestone and sandstone in his adopted country, 

 now known to contain, though sparingly, the remains of 

 animals and plants,— strata which do not even rank as the 

 oldest part of our secondary series. Steno suggested that 

 Moses, when speaking of the loftiest mountains as having 

 been covered by the deluge, meant merely the loftiest of 

 the hills then existing, which may not have been very high. 

 The diluvial waters, he supposed, may have issued from the 

 interior of the earth into which they had retired, when in 

 the beginning the land was separated from the sea. These, 

 and other hypotheses on the same subject, are not calculated 

 to enhance the value of the treatise, and could scarcely fail 

 to detract from the authority of those opinions which were 

 sound and legitimate deductions from fact and observation. 

 They have served, nevertheless, as the germs of many popular 

 theories of later times, and in an expanded form have been 

 put forth as original inventions by some of our contem- 

 poraries. 



Scilla, 1670.— Scilla, a Sicilian painter, published in 1670, 



treatise, in Latin, on the fossils of Calabria, illustrated 

 by good engravings. This work proves the continued ascen- 

 dancy of dogmas often refuted ; for we find the wit and 

 eloquence of the author chiefly directed against the obstinate 

 incredulity of naturalists as to the organic nature of fossil 

 shells. f Like many eminent naturalists of his day, Scilla 

 seems to give way to the popular persuasion, that all fossil 

 shells were the effects and proofs of the Mosaic deluge. It 



a 



some 



same 



* < 



SexitaquedistinctasEtrurisefacies of Paniscus in relief:— 'I believe,' 



agnoscimus, dum bis fluida, bis plana, 

 et sicca, bis aspera fuerit,' &c. 



f Scilla quotes the remark of Cicero 

 on the story that a stone in Chios had 



said the orator, ' that the figure bore 

 some resemblance to Paniscus, but not 

 such that you would have deemed it 

 sculptured by Scopas ; for chance never 



been cleft open, and presented the head perfectly imitates the truth.' 



