ORYCTOLOGY. 
all settled down again, and formed the strata 
of the present earth. The shells, and other 
extraneous bodies, being thus lodged 
among this stony and other mineral mat- 
ters, that afterwards became solid: when 
this comes now to be broke up, it exhibits 
impressions of the shells, and other bodies 
lodged in it ; showing even the hardest of it 
to have been once in a state of solution, 
soft, and susceptible of impression.” (Pre- 
face to Catalogue of English Fossils, p. 3.) 
But unable otherwise to oppose the opi- 
nion of Dr. Butttier, that the fossil corals 
were actually corals which had existed be- 
fore the flood, he had recourse to the suppo- 
sition of their having derived their forms 
from a second arrangement of their compo- 
nent parts, whilst in the waters of the de- 
luge. ‘‘ I have seen,” he says, “ fossil 
coralloids that have been composed of va- 
rious sorts of mineral and metallic matter, 
that yet have been formed into shape of the 
marine mycetitae, astroitm, and other like 
corals. Now all these have been formed 
out of the dissolved mineral and i\ietallic 
matter in the water of the deluge. The an- 
tediluvian corals were like all other solid 
stony bodies then in solution in that water, 
and might concrete again and form true co- 
rals there as well as in the sea water. 
Doubtless it did so ; but that matter was in 
so small a rpiantity, and bore so little a 
proportion to the mineral and metallic, 
with which it was then mixed and con- 
fused, as now rarely, if ever, to be met 
with.” (Letters on Fossils, by Dr. Wood- 
ward, p. 82.) At present, no one hesitates 
at considering all organized fossil bodies as 
having existed during a former state of this 
globe, and having been then endued with 
the energies of vegetable or animal life. 
Various appellations have been employed 
for the purpose of distinguishing these bo- 
dies from those minerals which do not owe 
their forms to animal or vegetable organiza- 
tion. 
Figured stones (lapides Jigurati et idio- 
niorphi) and diluvian atones (lapides diluma- 
ni ) were terms well chosen by the earlier mi- 
neralogists to designate these bodies, of the 
peculiar forms of which, and of their having 
probably obtained those forms from some 
changes depending on the deluge, they 
only could, with any propriety, speak. The 
term fossil comprising every mineral sub- 
stance dug out of the earth, it was thought 
necessary to distinguish these by the term ad- 
ventitious or extraneous. To this generally 
adopted mode of distinction, Mr. Parkinson 
(Organic Remains, vol. i. p. 34,) objects. 
The term extraneous, he observes, de- 
notes that the substance spoken of is fo- 
reign to the region in which it is found ; a 
sense in which, he thinks, it cannot, with 
propriety, be applied to sudi bodies as are 
almost deprived, not only of their primitive 
form, but of their original constituent prin- 
ciples. In these cases, where so consi- 
derable a degree of naturalization, as it 
wer,e,has taken place, the substance, he con- 
ceives, can no longer merit an epithet im- 
plying their being foreign to the regions in 
which they are found. Instances of the impro- 
priety of this employment of the term he 
instances in such of the jaspers and se- 
miopals as have derived their origin from 
wood ; to wdiich the epithet of extraneous 
does not appear to be strictly applicable. 
The term adventitious, as implying the re- 
sult of chance or accident, he thinks ought 
never to be applied to these substances ; 
since, in all nature’s works, there exist not 
stronger proofs of the provident design of 
the Almighty Creator, than in the appa- 
rently casual disposition of these substances. 
To the term petrifaction he objects, be- 
cause a conversion into stone only is here 
expressed ; whereas, in many instances, the 
substances of which the fossil is composed 
differs as much from stone, as from the mat- 
ter of which the body was originally com- 
posed. Fossils he considers as of two kinds, 
primary and secondary ; among the former 
lie places those bodies which appear to 
have been, ah initio, the natives of the sub- 
terranean regions ; and under the latter he 
disposes those substances, which, though 
now subjects of the mineral kingdom, bear 
indubitable marks of having been originally 
either of an animal or vegetable nature. 
The term fossil, however, which implies 
that the organized substance under exami- 
nation has been dug out of the earth, ap- 
pears to be sufficient, without any adjunct 
to express these substances ; indeed this 
term is warranted to be thus employed by 
its general acceptation. 
Besides those bodies which, being actually 
organic remains, deserve to be considered 
as fossils, ffossilia, vulgo dicta of Linnaeus) ; 
other bodies require to be noticed, as 
sometimes serving to illustrate the nature of 
organised fossils. These are, impressims, 
(impressa, Linn® us; typolithi, Waller) ; 
Casts, (redintegraia, Linnaeus ) ; and incrus- 
tations, f incrustata, Linnmus.) 
Fossils naturally divide into vegetable 
and animal, according to which of those 
kingdoms they originally belonged; thos? 
