258 The American Geologist. October, i892 
Paris by Cuvier himself, associated with Alexander Brongniart. In his 
autobiography, Cuvier says, "From 1804 to 1808, the singularity of the 
animals, of which I have discovered the bones at Montmartie, made me 
desire to know with more details the geology of the environs of Paris. 
My friend Brongniart joined me in this work. [ discovered [after many 
combinations and comparisons of sections of quarries and butts] the uni- 
formity of our strata; and it was I who discovered also, in the forest of 
Fontainebleau, the immense layers of fresh water deposits intercalated 
between marine beds. We published the r(^sum6 of our researches in 
the spring of 1808." The title of that important memoir is: Essai sur 
la geographie mineralogique des environs de Paris. 
A contemporary and the author of the first geological map of France, 
the celebrated geologist, d'Omalius d'Halloy, says of this work: "As 
regards geology, it is the most important of the century, because it con- 
tains the first record of the revolution which has created the present stat- 
utes of that science; that is to say, it first applied paleontology to the 
study of the crust of the earth." 
In 1810 Alexander Brongniart and Cuvier published a second and 
most important edition of their memoir, in which is found, for the first 
time, lists of fossil remains special to each bed or group of strata. 
William Smith, after many years of researches, published, in June» 
1816, his masterly work for English geology of: Strata Identified by Or- 
ganized Fossils; ioWov^e^ next year by: Stratigraphical System of Organ- 
ized fossils— explaining their use in identifying the British strata. Strata 
Smith, as he was nicknamed by his contemporaries in England, seems to 
have discovered, as far back as 1795, that each stratum was characterized 
by special fossil remains; and there is no doubt, that in 1799, he wrote a 
tabular view showing the order of the strata and their imhedded organic 
remains in the vicinity of Bath. Unfortunately it remained unpublished 
until his nephew, John Phillips, published his Memoirs of William Smith 
in 1844; so it cannot be used in a question of priority. 
At that time England and France were involved in constant wars, and 
Cuvier, Brongniart and Smith made their discoveries, completely in ig- 
norance of one another's works and researches. Smith, in his 4to volume 
of 1817, quotes at p. iv of the introduction, among the works that he has 
consulted: Cuvier — Geographie Mineralogique des environs de Paris; but 
maintained that "The first written account of this discovery was circu- 
lated in 1799." 
But if the discovery was simultaneous in England and in France, its 
great value and full importance was shown through Cuvier and Brongni- 
art's published works on Comparative Anatomy ; Recherches sur les osse- 
nentsfossiles, a.xidt\ie geograpJiie mineralogique des environs des Paris, from. 
1800 to 1812; years before any of William Smith's publications. 
Until 1819 nothing was attempted in the way of synchronism and as- 
similation of formations of strata at great distances, in using fossil re- 
mains only; when Alexander Brongniart read a report before the Acad- 
emy of Science, showing remarkabl-i similarity in each formation or 
terrain "dans les pays les plus (^loign(''s, sous les latitudes et sous lea 
