COLOLITES. 
201 
It is probable that to many persons inexperi- 
enced in anatomy, any kind of information on a 
subject so remote, and apparently so inaccessible, 
as the intestinal structure of an extinct reptile or 
a fossil fish, may at first appear devoid of the 
smallest possible importance ; but it assumes a 
character of high value, in the investigation of 
the proofs of creative wisdom and design, that 
are unfolded by the researches of Geology ; and 
supplies a new link to that important chain, 
^hich connects the lost races that formerly in- 
habited our planet, with species that are actually 
living and moving around ourselves.* The sys- 
tematic recurrence, in animals of such distant 
eras, of the same contrivances, similarly dis- 
posed to effect similar purposes, with analogous 
adaptations to peculiar conditions of existence, 
shews that they all originated in the same Intel- 
hgence. 
When we see the body of an Ichthyosaurus, 
still containing the food it had eaten just before 
its death, and its ribs still surrounding the 
remains of fishes, that were swallowed ten thou- 
son dignite sur tout ce qui echappe a 
infl ici «n cxemple singulier de son 
due^^r*!^ * substances si viles dans leur origine, etant ren- 
4 la lunii^re aprk tant de si^!cles, deviennent d’une grande 
servent a remplir no nouveau chapitre 
]V ’stoire naturelle du globe. — Bulletin Soc. Imp. de Moscow, 
''t- 1833, p. 23. 
