THE STATE GEOLOGIST. 61 



ture is attributed to Xenophanes of Colophon, who flourished to- 

 wards the end of the sixth century of the pagan era, and was 

 founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. Only a few frag- 

 ments of his writings have come down to> us, but he is reported 

 by later authors to have commented upon the remains of fishes 

 and other animals in the fossil state, their occurrence having been 

 explained by him in a most sagacious manner. He not only in- 

 ferred from them the former transgression of the sea over the 

 land, but also the possibility of future submergence, with accom- 

 panying extinction of all forms of terrestrial life. 



Xanthus and Herodotus, of the fifth century B. C, enter- 

 tained similar opinions concerning the nature of fossils, and it is 

 evident from the writings of numerous Greek and Roman au- 

 thors, both prior to and after the beginning of the Christian era, 

 that petrified remains attracted considerable attention. The Em- 

 peror Augustus even possessed a collection of fossil bones. At 

 a later period, however, the views of Aristotle, especially those 

 relating to spontaneous generation, exerted a baneful influence 

 upon the interpretation of nature, it being assumed that living 

 creatures could spring into existence and acquire of themselves 

 almost any conceivable shape; and if this were possible for living 

 creatures, so also might it be possible for mineral matter to as- 

 sume endless variety of form. In consequence, fossils were for 

 a long time regarded as fortuitous aggregations which had been 

 formed within the rocks, or had become moulded on the spot 

 through occult agencies, or through the medium of a vis plastic a. 

 A rival theory that fossils were the remains of bodies which had 

 been overwhelmed by the Scriptural deluge, afterwards becoming 

 preserved in the rocks, also engrafted itself firmly upon the popu- 

 lar imagination. 



Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most original and versatile gen- 

 iuses the world has seen, and Girolamo Fracastoro, his younger 

 contemporary and fellow-countryman, were among the first to 

 ridicule the prevailing misconceptions of their time (early part of 

 the sixteenth century), and to point out the true nature of fossils 

 in convincing manner. Those interested in the development of 

 geological and palseontological science during the formative per- 

 iod of their history will find excellent accounts in Sir Charles 



