22 
Nic. Steno, in a dissertation, De Solido intra Solidum Contento, pub- 
lished in 1639, at Florence, displayed a considerable degree of sound 
judgment in his inquiries respecting these substances. The Museum 
Metallicum of the indefatigable and illustrious Aldrovandus, published 
in 1648, also contains the descriptions and delineation of several 
fossil bodies. The work of Augustino Scilla, De Corporihus marinis 
lapidescentihus, published at Naples in 16/0, also supplies a consider- 
able portion of information, the result of most careful and anxious 
inquiry. About this period too, several learned men undertook to 
publish the oryctological history of several different parts of Germany, 
Italy, &c. Thus the fossils of Silesia were described by Caspar 
Schwenkfeld; those of Hildesheim by Frid. Lachmund, in 1669; and 
those of Switzerland, in 1680, by Jo. J. Wagner. About this time 
was also published a dissertation, by Jo. Dan. Geyer, at Frankfort, 
De Montibus conchiferis et glossopetris Aheyensihus ; and at Leipsic, 
a dissertation by Albertus, De Figuris variarum Rerum in Lapidi- 
hus, et speciatim Fossilibus, Comitatus Mansfeldice. Nor were the 
fossils of this country neglected; the Lithophylacii Dritannici Ichno- 
graphia of Lhwyd, published at Oxfoixl in 1669, forms a very ample 
catalogue of English fossils, contained in the Ashmolean Museum. 
In 1664 was published, by Thomas Lawrence, Mercuriaiis Centralis; 
or an Account of Subterraneal Cockle and other Shells in Norfolk. 
Several English fossils are also described in Dr. Plott’s Natural 
History of Oxfordshire, published in 1686 ; as well as in that of 
Staffordshire, written by the same author. In the Natural History 
of Northamptonshire, by Dr. Morton, and in Dr. Leigh’s Natural 
History of Cheshire, Lancashire, and of the Peak of Derbyshire, 
which were published nearly at this time, several curious particulars 
are recorded, relative to fossil bodies found in these parts. But the 
most important publications of this period, which related to these 
substances, were those of Dr. Woodward, particularly, the Natural 
