14 



In 1710, David Biittner published a volume entitled "Rudera 

 Diluvii Testes" He strongly opposed Lkwyd's explanation 

 of the origin of fossils, and referred these objects directly to 

 the Flood. The most renowned work, however, of this time, 

 was published at Zurich, in 1726, by Scheuchzer, a physician 

 and naturalist, and professor in the University of Altorf. It 

 bore the title "Homo Diluvii Testis." The specimen upon 

 which this work was based was found at Oeningen, and was 

 regarded as the skeleton of a child destroyed by the Deluge. 

 The author recognized in this remarkable fossil, not merely the 

 skeleton, but also portions of the muscles, the liver, and the 

 brain. The same author was fortunate enough to discover, 

 subsecpiently, near Altorf, two fossil vertebrae, which he at 

 once referred to that " Accursed race destroyed by the Flood !" 

 These, also, he carefully described and figured in his "Physica 

 /Sacra," published at Ulm in 1731. Engravings of both were 

 subsecpiently given in the " Copper-Bible." Cuvier afterward 

 examined these interesting relics, and pronounced the skeleton 

 of the supposed child to be the remains of a gigantic 

 Salamander, and the two vertebra to be those of an 

 Ichthyosaurus ! 



Another famous book appeared in Germany in the same year 

 in which Scheuchzer's first volume was published. The author 

 was John Bartholomew Adam Beringer, professor at the Uni- 

 versity of Wiirtzburg, and his great work* indirectly had an 

 important influence upon the investigation of fossil remains. 

 The history of the work is instructive, if only as an indication 

 of the state of knowledge at that date. Professor Beringer, in 

 accordance with views of his time, had taught his pupils that 

 fossil remains, or " figured stones," as they were called, were 

 mere "sports of nature." Some of his fun-loving students 

 reasoned among themselves, " If Nature can make figured 

 stones in sport, why can not we ?" Accordingly, from the soft 



* Litlwgrapliia Wirceburgensis, ducentis lapidum figuratorum, a potiori, insecti- 

 formium, prodigiosfs imaginibus exornata. Wirceburgi, 1720. Edit. II. Franco- 

 furti et Lipsiae. 1167. 



