The Pkixciples of Palaeontology. 1o5 



idea of transformation. Cuvier, following Eusebius, cites a curi- 

 ous passage on this subject : 



" Man must be descended from creatures of an especial form, for 

 while other animals procure their food without difficulty, man 

 alone requires a longtime to attain to the power of caring for him- 

 self, necessitating a prolonged education ; any creature in the 

 beginning who resembled him must have been wholly unable to 

 maintain its existence." And Cuvier takes advantage of this 

 occasion to ridicule these modern scientists who, like Lamarck and 

 Geoffroy Saint-IIilaire, seek to revive the reveries of a Greek 

 poet. 



Aristotle, Xenophon and Steabo were acquainted with fossils 

 and had correct ideas in regard to their origin. 



The middle ages and the modern epoch down to the end of the 

 eighteenth century, are filled, especially in Italy and in England, 

 with interminable discussions on the nature of fossils. The cur- 

 rent opinion was that these remains could have nothing in 

 common with the animals and plants of our days. The boldest 

 of the learned men, however, advanced the opinion, that the 

 shells had indeed been the habitations of living creatures, and 

 had been deposited on the mountains at the time of I^oah's 

 deluge. The principal efforts of the philosophers were directed 

 toward making their theories accord with the Holy Scriptures. 

 From time to time some more singular explanation was put 

 forth. Some imagined a sort of fermentation of fatty matter; 

 many saw in fossils only freaks of nature, or essays more or less 

 successful in creating new forms of life ; others saw disturbed 

 movements and exhalations of the earth; and still others sup- 

 posed the intervention of some plastic power. 



Some scientists, distinguished in other branches, had the 

 merit of discovering, in a laborious way it is true, and in connec- 

 tion with some fantastic contradictions, a reasonable explanation 

 of the facts which at the present day appear so simple. We will 

 cite, as a matter of curiosity, a sentence of Leonard > da Ymci: 



" It is said that the shells have been formed on the hills by the 

 influence of the stars, but I ask where at the present day are 

 stars which form on hills shells of diverse age and aspect ? And 

 how can the petrifaction of leaves, plants and sea-crabs on these 

 same hills be thus accounted for ?" 



