l^i ^he Statural Hijlory 
where) about 15 inches ; in weight, though reprefenting fo (liori 
a part of the thigh-bom^ almoft 20 pounds. 
I $6. V^\\\c]\2Xtdmenfions^ 2ndi2i mighty fo much exceeding 
the ordinary courfe of nature^ that by ^gricola% Cdefalpnu^^^ 
and Kinher ^, fuch ftones have been rather thought to be formed 
either in hollows of Rocks cafually of this figure^ and filled with 
materials {[t {or petrification-^ or by fome other fportive plaftic 
power o( the Earth, than ever to have been XQ-Abones^ now fetri- 
fied. 
i^j. And that indeed there are ftones thus naturally fafl-jion- 
ed, muft by no means be doubted, fince no queftion the ftony 
teeth of which there are Cart-loads to be had in a Cave near Pa- 
lermo, befide others in the shape of leg dcwA thigh- hones^ and of 
the Fer/fZ'r^e'of the te^, are no others than fuch''. None of 
them, as the judicious Charles Marquefs of VentimigUa wellob- 
ferved, having any figns o{ hollownefs for the place of the marrow^ 
much lefs of the marrow it felf. 
158. which has fully convinced me that this ftoneo^ ours was 
not fo produced, it having thofe figns exquifitly exprelTed ; but 
muit have been a real bone^ now petrified^ and therefore indeed 
not properly belonging to this place. However, it being now 
a Hone^ and not coming to my hands whilft I was treating of pe- 
trifications^ I have rather thought fit to throw my felf upon the 
Readers candour , and mif-place it here , as 1 did the Adarce^ 
than altogether to omit fo confiderable an inftance. 
159. But againft this opinion of its having been once a real 
hone, there lies a confiderable objeSfion^ viz^ that it will be hard 
to find an Animal proportionable toi/, both Horfes znd Oxen fal- 
ling much short of />. To which if it be anfwer'd, that it may 
be much increafed in the petrification ; it may again be replyed, 
that though indeed there be an augment in {ome petrifications^ yet 
that it is not fo in all : for though in all petrifications ther e be an 
ingrefs of fleaj/is and particles that were not there before, and. 
therefore either a ceffion of fome other body required, or a ne- 
cefTary augmentation ; yet that thofe petrifying {learns are fora- 
times fo thin and fine, that they require only the ceffion of fome 
Airy or JEthereal atoms contained before in the porous parts of 
« J>e'RaturatoffiUum> lib-T. f De Meta!/icisjii,2. caj>. ^2- * KWckert Mundus lubtcnan- lih-%-feCt. 
2- cap. if. difq. 2- ^ Idem loco dtato^ dijci- 1. 
the 
