our knowledge of such as are living; whereas, 

 with respect to fossil shells and fishes, who 

 can say which among thern is not hid in the 

 bosom of the ocean ? 



" Notwithstandlno: these reasons in favour 

 of the preference to be given to the study of 

 the fossil bones of quadrupeds, the celebrated 

 men, whom I have just mentioned*, have 

 been stopped in their reseaches by two kinds 

 of difficulties. On one hand, these bones -are 

 more difhcult to be collected than any other 

 fossils ; rarely are they f )und in good preser- 

 vation; the workmen who discover them pay 

 little attention to them, frequently suspecting 

 them to be no other than the bones of ordi- 

 nary men and quadrupeds: often even the 

 learned have overlooked those delicate vari- 

 ations which distinguish them from the living 

 species. On the other hand, it is not always 

 easy to make the proper comparisons ; — com- 

 parative anatomy has but just emiCrged from 



* Woodward, Whiston, Leibnitz, EufFcn, Slonne, Mesrer- 

 schmidt, Daubenton, Camper, Blumenbach, Hunter, Rofe- 

 fniiller, Faujas. 



