M. Charpentier on Fossil Organic Remains^ 8S1 
In fact, when we pretend to be able to distinguish the diife^ 
rent secondary formations from one another, and to determine 
their identity in all parts of the globe, by the petrifactions which 
they contain, we suppose that each formation contains certain 
species of organised bodies which are peculiar to it, and which 
do not occur in another ; consequently, it must be admitted, that 
the same formation contains, in all countries, the same organised 
beings, — a hypothesis which does not seem to me to be founded 
upon a sufficient number of observations ; because the researches 
which have hitherto been made have been limited to a very small 
number of countries, which are not even sufficiently distant from 
one another to admit the deduction of general conclusions. Thus 
it is very possible, that the same formation contains all over France, 
perhaps throughout the whole of Europe, the same petrifactions ; 
but we could not thence conclude, that these organic bodies must 
be equally the same in the analogous formation in Asia, in A- 
frica, or in any part of the globe whatever at a distance from 
Europe. Judging from the present distribution of living beings 
over the earth, it does not appear probable, nor even possible, 
that any animal or vegetable species could ever have existed at 
the same time in every part of the vast ocean, which, before the 
formation of the secondary rocks, must have covered the surface 
of the globe. 
The identity or difference of fossils cannot therefore setve, in 
a general manner, for pronouncing upon the identity or diffe- 
rence of the various formations. They are, in my opinion, 
equally insufficient for determining their relative age ; because 
we should previously be acquainted with the relative age or pe- 
riod of existence of these organic bodies, which we could only 
determine with precision by the relative age of the rocks which 
contain them. It is then impossible for us to draw a conclusion 
in the inverse sense, and we are therefore reduced to observe the 
position of rocks, in order to determine their relative age. 
I may add, that we are equally ignorant if a genus or species 
of organised bodies may not become extinct and be reproduced 
again at intervals. It is without doubt very probable that this 
has not taken place ; but, nevertheless, we are not certain, and 
it can only be by purely geognostical researches that w^e can 
eventually come to determine this fact. 
