io8 Mr. Konig on a fossil huma 7 i Skeleton 
theory, at least of the crust of the earth. It appears there- 
fore strange, that these latter, although they speak a far more 
intelligible language than the rest, should, till within a very 
short period, have been almost entirely disregarded by the 
speculative geologist. Bones, the most distinctly organized, 
were so very imperfectly understood, even in the beginning 
of the last century, that Dr. Carl, in his Ossium fossilinm doci- 
7 nas‘ia, published at Frankfurt in 1704, found it necessary to 
employ all his powers of reasoning, aided by chemical ana- 
lysis, to prove that they were neither lusus nalurce, nor the 
results of a vis plastica of the earth. At a still later period, 
the principal value put upon the discovery of these fossil 
bones, was derived from the supposed proof they alForded of 
the former existence of a gigantic race of men, or from the 
evidence they were supposed to give in behalf of an universal 
deluge: and it is curious to observe, to what a degree men 
eminent for science, but very deficient in critical acumen, 
have been led astray in their speculations, under the influence 
of preconceived notions. 
Camper and Blumenbach were among the first who thought 
of connecting the subject of osseous fossil remains with sys- 
tematic geology. The former of these naturalists had, at first, 
controverted the doctrine of the extinction of genera and spe- 
cies as incompatible with divine providence ; but, afterwards 
adopting it himself, he alludes to a prior creation to that of 
man, in the following passage, which, I suppose, has never 
been quoted: Hodie, quam plurima extinctorum (animaiium) 
“ specimina in Museo raeo reperiunda, et meditationes magis 
“ seriie, persuaserunt mihi, sapientice Divinse non repugnare 
“ legem, qua res illas vel animalia ilia desinere jubeat, simulac 
