XY1 
INTRODUCTION. 
who was content to regard them as produced by some 
plastic force in the rock which he could not explain. 
The authoritative opinion of Aristotle was almost 
universally accepted by the few writers who considered the 
subject before the revival of learning towards the beginning 
of the sixteenth century. By this time the numerous shells, 
teeth, and fish-remains met with in the stone quarries of 
Italy had induced several observers in that country to 
reconsider the question of their true nature. Similar 
discoveries in other European countries were also being 
discussed in their bearing on the same problem. The objects 
found in stone were now closely compared with the shells, 
teeth, and skeletons of the animals most nearly resembling 
them which still lived in the Mediterranean sea. The 
plant-remains were also studied deeply in connection with 
the leaves of the known existing vegetation. The result was 
that, although many observers still adhered to the long- 
prevalent belief, some of the most philosophical minds were 
compelled by strict reasoning to admit that the fossilia 
(Latin, “ things dug up ”), or fossils, as they were now 
commonly termed, were really the remains of the once-living 
animals and plants which they appeared to represent. 
Leonardo da Yinci, the well known painter, was one of the 
first to support this opinion with unanswerable arguments; 
while Steno, a Professor in the University of Padua, more 
than a century later, made it impossible any longer to doubt 
his demonstration of the facts. Steno’s collection was 
acquired by the English Gresham Professor, John Woodward, 
who bequeathed it to the University of Cambridge, where it 
is still preserved in the Woodwardian Museum. 
The true nature of fossils was thus settled by the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, and the next problem 
was to explain how the remains of sea-animals had been 
buried in the rocks far inland and at great heights among 
hills and mountains. For at least sixty years it was the 
prevailing opinion that all the phenomena could be accounted 
for by the Deluge recorded in the Pentateuch. There were, 
however, many difficulties in accepting this explanation, 
and the discussions at the time led to a most detailed study 
of the manner in which the fossils were grouped and 
distributed in the different kinds of rock. Observations 
accumulated at a remarkable rate, until, by the end of the 
eighteenth century, it became quite clear that the fossilised 
animals and plants could not have lived all together at one 
