XIV INTRODUCTION. 



who was content to regard them as produced by some 

 plastic force in the rock which he could not explain. 



The authoritative opinion of Aristotle was almost 

 universally accepted by the few writers who considered the 

 subject before the revival of learning towards the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century. By this time the numerous shells, 

 teeth, and fish-remains met with in the stone quarries of 

 Italy had induced several observers in that country to 

 reconsider the question of their true nature. Similar 

 discoveries in other European countries were also being 

 discussed in their bearing on the same problem. The objects 

 found in stone were now closely compared with the shells, 

 teeth, and skeletons of the animals most nearly resembling 

 them which still lived in the Mediterranean sea. The 

 plant-remains were also studied deeply in connection with 

 the leaves of the known existing vegetation. The result was 

 that, although many observers still adhered to the long- 

 prevalent belief, some of the most philosophical minds were 

 compelled by strict reasoning to admit that the fossilia 

 (Latin, " things dug up "), or fossils, as they were now 

 commonly termed, were really the remains of the once-living 

 animals and plants which they appeared to represent. 

 Leonardo da Vinci, the well known painter, was one of the 

 first to support this opinion with unanswerable arguments ; 

 while Steno, a Professor in the University of Padua, more 

 than a century later, made it impossible any longer to doubt 

 bis demonstration of the facts. Steno's collection was 

 acquired by the English Gresham Professor, John Woodward, 

 who bequeathed it to the University of Cambridge, where it 

 is still preserved in the Woodwardian Museum. 



The true nature of fossils was thus settled by the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, and the next problem 

 was to explain how the remains of sea-animals had been 

 buried in the rocks far inland and at great heights among 

 hills and mountains. Eor at least sixty years it was the 

 prevailing opinion that all the phenomena could be accounted 

 for by the Deluge recorded in the Pentateuch. There were, 

 however, many difficulties in accepting this explanation, 

 and the discussions at the time led to a most detailed study 

 of the manner in which the fossils were grouped and 

 distributed in the different kinds of rock. Observations 

 accumulated at a remarkable rate, until, by the end of the 

 eighteenth century, it became quite clear that the fossilised 

 animals and plants could not have lived all together at one 



