( 2282 ) 
of Moderns as well as of Ancient Writers 5 according to that 
oi CCelfus: Oportet neque recentiores viros in his fraudure^ qu£ 
vel reperenmt^ vel reUe Jecuti [unt i ^ tamen ea^ qu<£ ab anttquu 
OTibm pofuafunt^ authoribus [uis redder e, You can beft intorm 
uie, what D» Swammsrdam does in a matter of ihis nature : 
when I read in the Account given us by you of his Book, 
J^umb^6i\'^ that Snails are both Male and Female; thjt Ca- 
terpillars may teach us, by their feeding, th^ correfpondence 
of the vertues of Planrs, Sccj I am dcfirous to know, whe- 
ther he quoCeMr. J{ay for the former ^ as having publirti't the 
Obfervation ten years ago at leaft; and for the latter, the 
Learned and ¥ioh\QD,Co'umna, who did propofe the way of 
effayingthe vertues of Plants by the paints oflnledlsin the 
beginning of this Age/ 
But f leave this, and proceed to a remarkof my own ; and 
itfhallbe, ifyou pleale, concerning Petrified Shells I mean 
luch Shells, as I have oblerved in our Engiifli ftone-Quarrier, 
But Sir^ let me premife thus much, that I am confident, that 
you at leaft will acquit me, and not believe me one ofali* 
Cigious nature. This I fay in reference to what I have lately 
read in Stem's Prodromuf, that, if my fentiments on this parti- 
cular are fomewhat different from his, it proceeds rot from a 
fpirit of contradidiion 5 but from a different view of Na:ure. 
Firft then, we will eafily believe, that in iome CouotrieSjand 
particularly along the fhoresof the Mediterranean Sea, there 
may all manner of Sea fhclis be found promifcnoujly included in 
Rocks or Earthy and at good diftances too from the Sea. Bur, 
for our Englifli-inland ^/^^^rnV/j which alio abound with in- 
finite number and great varieties of (hells, I am apt to think, 
there is no fuch matter, as Pecrifyi;ig of Shells in the bufinefs 
(or^as explains himfelf p. 84. in the Englifb Verfion,^' 
nlibi^ that the fubftance of thofe fliells, formerly belonging, 
toanimals, hath been dsffolved or wafted by the penetrating^ 
force of ju'ces ^ and that a ftony fubitance is come in the 
place thereof^) but that ihefe Cockle-like ilones ever were, 
as they arcat prefent. Lap id e s fui generis^ and never any part 
ofan Animal. That they are fo at prefent, isineflcil confef^" 
led by Stsno in the above cited page 5 and it is moft certain. 
