SHEPPARD : MARTIN SIMPSON AND HIS GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS 303 
This first edition contains an illustration (p. 16) of " Plesiosaurus," 
■vvliich does not occur in the later editions, and the second edition of 
" The Fossils of the Yorkshire Lias," 1880, contains (p. 25) a restoration 
of a belemnite which does not occur in the first edition. 
A second edition of this work, evidently considerably enlarged, as 
it contains xxiv.+256 pages, appeared in 1884. The following is a 
copy of the title : — 
" The Fossils / of the / Yorkshire Lias ; / Described from, Nature 
/ with a carefully measured section of the / s':rata, and the fossils 
peculiar to each. / By / Martin Simpson / Lecturer on Natural Science, 
and Curator of / the Whitby Museum ; Author of a Guide / to the 
Geology of Yorkshire. / Second Edition. 
" Whitby : / Printed by Forth & Sons, Flowergate, / Sold at the 
Museum. / London : / John Wlieldon, Natural History Bookseller, / 
58, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. / 1884." 
This work was " Price 5s. to Subscribers only," judging trom an 
advertisement on the cover of the second edition of his " Guide to 
Whitby and the Vicinity," 1887. 
In his Preface to this second edition, Simpsou states " The Fossils 
of the Yorkshire Lias, and especially the Ammonites, had been objects 
of superstition and poetick fiction from mediaeval times, but respecting 
their true nature no one ventured to express an opinion." 
He states that the " honour of first introducing the study of the rocks 
and organick remains of eastern Yorkshire into Whitby and the region 
round about, is due to the Kev. George Young, M.A., of Edinburgh. 
In 1818, he published his History of Whitby in which he gave a 
very luminous and correct exposition of the rocks and organick remains 
of the district." Simpson then gives the following paragraph, which 
it is interesting to read in these times : — 
' The Publication of this work immediately produced a general 
revolution in publick opinion respecting the fossil remains of the 
district, and excited great zeal for further discovery. There was, 
indeed, at this time, in Whitby, a strong desire after intellectual 
pursuits, not only amongst the learned, but amongst many whose 
circumstances in life were unfavourable to such pursuits. The cessation 
of a long and exhausting war, the energies aroused by that war, and 
the want of employment before the return of commercial prosperity, 
all had a tendency to intellectual pursuits, and, no doubt, contributed 
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