XIV. Observations on some of the Strata in the Neighbourhood 

 of London^ and on the Fossil Remains contained in them. 



By James Pakkinson, Esq. 

 Member of the Geological Society. 



1 HE study of fossil organized remains has hitherto been directed 

 too exclusively to the consideration of the specimens themselves ; 

 and hence has been considered rather as an appendix to botany and 

 zoology, than as (what it really is) a very important branch of geolo- 

 gical inquiry. 



From a comparison of fossil remains with those living or extant 

 beings to which they bear the closest analogy, great resemblances 

 and striking differences are at the same time perceivable. In 

 some instances the generic characters materially differ, but in most 

 they very closely correspond ; whilst the specific characters are very 

 rarely found to agree, except when the fossil appears to have existed 

 at, comparatively, a late period. Of man, who constitutes a genus by 

 himself, not a single decided remain has been found in a fossil state. 

 Chemical analysis has been called in to the aid of the na- 

 turalist, in order to account for the perfect state of preservation 

 observable in remains organized with the most exquisite delicacy, 

 and which there is every reason for supposing to have been readily 

 decomposable in their recent state. From this investigation we 

 learn the manner in which these memorials of the old world, so in- 

 teresting and so frail have been preserved. Som.e have been impreg- 



