10 



" How could the Cornu Ammonis," Toumef ort asked, " which 

 is constantly in the figure of a volute, he formed withoiit a 

 seed containing the same structure in the small, as in the 

 larger forms ? Who moulded it so artfully, and where are the 

 .moulds % " The stalactites which formed in caverns in various 

 parts of the world were also supposed to be proofs of this 

 vegetative growth. 



Still another theory has been held at various times, and is 

 not yet entirely forgotten, namely : that the Creator made 

 fossil animals and plants just as they are found in the rocks, 

 in pursuance of a plan beyond our comprehension. This 

 theory has never prevailed among those familiar with scientific 

 facts, and hence needs here no further consideration. 



An interest in fossil remains arose in England later than on 

 the continent ; but when attention was directed to them, 

 the first opinions as to their origin were not less fanciful and 

 erroneous than those to which we have already referred. Dr. 

 Plot, in his "Natural History of Oxfordshire," published in 

 1677, considered the origin of fossil shells and fishes to be due 

 to a " plastic virtue, latent in the earth," as Theophrastus had 

 suggested long before. Lhwyd, in his "Zithqphylacii Britcm- 

 nici lo/mographia," published at Oxford in 1699, gives a cata- 

 logue of English fossils contained in the Ashmolean Museum. 

 He opposed the vis plastica theory, and expressed the opinion 

 that the spawn of fishes and other marine animals had been 

 raised with the vapors from the sea, conveyed inland by clouds, 

 and deposited by rain, had permeated into the interior of the 

 earth, and thus produced the fossil remains we find in the 

 rocks. About this time several important works were pub- 

 lished in England by Dr. Martin Lister, which did much to 

 infuse a true knowledge of fossil remains. He gave figures 

 of recent shells side by side with some of the fossil forms, so 

 that the resemblance became at once apparent. The fossil 

 species of shells he called "turbinated and bivalve stones," 

 and adds, " either these were terriginous, or, if otherwise, the 

 animals which they so exactly represent have become extinct." 



