Petrifactions. MINER 
©Vfcrved by Mr. Hatchett, true bony fubftances, contain¬ 
ing much phofphat of lime, with a greater proportion of 
the membranaceous part than in common bone. The 
deftruftive wars between thefe animals mull immediately 
be feen to have no bearing on this particular faft; fince, 
if the waters continued to be well peopled, the number of 
foflils of this clafs would mot be thereby dimini (lied. 
The fame writer conceives that the opinion of the filh 
of Vellena Nuova having been inftantly killed, is fup- 
ported by the pofition and the horizontal and tranquil 
fituation in which they are found: (Effai de Geologic, 
p. 107.) It may be fufficient to lliow how little reliance 
is to be placed on this reafoning, to obferve, that the ce¬ 
lebrated Werner has deduced the lame inference from 
the oppofite faft; he being of opinion, from the contorted 
alpeft of the filh in the bituminous Hate of Mansfeldt, 
that the filh have been fuddenly killed by an irruption 
or inftantaneous formation of fulphureo-metallic matter. 
3Mor does the particular circumftance which has been fo 
much infilled upon, as a proof of this opinion of M. Faujas, 
appear to be at all conclufive. One of the fpecimens from 
Vellena Nuova, in the Mufeum of Natural Hillory at Paris, 
is a pike which has died with another filh of the fame 
fpecies Hill in his throat; it having been fuppofed that 
its inftantaneous death was produced by a fudden vol¬ 
canic eruption into the water, at the moment of its hav¬ 
ing fwallowed its prey. The faft, however, really is, that 
folfil filh are found in all the different quarries in which 
they exift, in almoft every Hate and pofition which can 
be conceived; fometimes with their altered flelh Hill 
covering their bones, and at other times the Ikeleton only 
is prelerved. Many are feen laid out in a ilraight line ; 
but nearly as many are alfo feen in various contorted 
pofitions. 
Among the foffil filh, whofe living analogues are 
known, the pike, the carp, the perch, the eel, the fea- 
fcorpion, the Icarus, the mackarel, the turbot, the fword- 
filh, cod, gadus mullela, gobius, and feveral others, have 
been mentioned by different authors, among the fillies 
found in the neighbourhood of Verona. M. Faujas par¬ 
ticularizes a fiftularia of Japan; a pegalus of the Indian 
Sea and of Bralil 5 and three chetodons of India. Cepede, 
in the preliminary dilcourle to the lecond volume of his 
Natural Hillory of Fillies, informs us, that more than 
thirty Afiatic, African, and American, I'pecies of filh have 
been here difcovered. M. Fortis alfo oblerves, in a letter 
to M. Faujas, that the approximation which he has been 
able to make of thefe fillies to the figures of thole of Ota- 
heite ? published by Broufonnet, has convinced him that 
it is ahfolutely in that diftant lea that the aftually-living 
defendants of the ancient generation, now found mum¬ 
mified in the quarry of Vellena Nova, are to be fought 
for: as it is in tliele fame parts that we find the originals 
of almoft all the petrified Ihells of the mountains of Ve¬ 
rona and of Vicentino. See the article Ichthyolithus, 
vol. x. p. 733. 
Entomolithus. —The body or fome part of nn infeft 
changed into a foffil. 
Infe£tsOf the fmaller kinds are feldom found in a foffil 
Hate, the iinallnel's of their fize, and the delicacy of their 
ftrufture, preventing their prefervation. The one which 
is generally found in the moll perfeft condition is that 
which is commonly denominated the Dudley lollil, from 
its being found in the neighbourhood ot Dudley in Wor- 
cefterlhire. Other fpecies of this have been found in 
Wales and Germany. From the imperfedl Hate in which 
thefe inlefts have been found, little more, perhaps, can be 
faid of them, except that the remains which have been 
examined lhow that the covering ol the body was formed 
by three feries of thick cruftaceous Ihells, tranfverfely 
difpofed in rows, the length of the body, while one plate 
ler.ved to give a covering to the head ol tire animal. Other 
remains of the fmaller inlefts have been mentioned by dif¬ 
ferent authors, but few or none appear to have been de- 
fciibed as agreeing with any inleft: now known in exilt- 
A L O G Y. Petrifactions. 527 
ence. Gmelin has defcribed but three fpecies, all of which 
belong to the aptera, or feventh and lall divifion of infedts. 
i. Entomolithus cancri; the crab, or fome of its parts. 
Found in various parts of Great Britain, and in moll 
parts of the globe, in Hate or foliated limeftone, either en¬ 
tire or in parts, as the lliell, legs, claws. &c. of various 
fpecies. The remains of lobllers and crabs are frequently 
found in the illes of Sheppey and Malta; and fome very- 
good and perfeft fpecimens were difcovered in digging 
the archway at Highgate in the years of 1813 and 13. 
The remains of different fpecies of thefe animals are alfo 
found in a comprelfed Hate in the fchiltous mafles of Pap- 
penheim and Oppenheim. 
3. Entomolithus monoculi; the monoculns polyphe- 
mus. Found near Solenhofen, in foliated limeftone. 
3. Entomolithus paradoxus j the onifeus paradoxus. 
Found in various parts of Great Britain and the conti¬ 
nent, in various kinds of limeftone, and indurated clay or 
Hate, loole or affixed, folitary or in numbers, entire or in 
parts, Ilraight or incurved, expanded or contrafted; the 
head covered with a very convex, roughilh, often three- 
parted, lliell, femilunar on the fore part, grooved its whole 
length; the tail thin, three-parted by three tubercles. 
Helmintholithus.—T he body or parts of a worm, 
changed into a foffil fubftance. 
The fpecimens under this head are very numerous j 
but they belong chiefly to the Vermes tejlaceci, or lhe' 1 - 
fifli, and the zoophyta , or compolite eftlorefcing worms, 
fuch as form the corals, See. there being only two fpecies 
of the moUufca , which indeed are thofe which conneft that 
divilion with the tejlacea , and of courlc Hand firft in the 
followung enumeration. 
1. Helmintholithus aflerias; the ftar-fifli, omits parts. 
The varieties of this, found in a foffil Hate, are as follows. 
a. Alterias pappola; found in llaty limeftone at Pap- 
penheim. 
/?. A. rubens; found in St. Peter's mountain near Maef- 
tricht. 
y. A. minuta; found in chalk-pits in various parts of 
England. It is Itnall, of a reddiih-white colour ; in form 
of a liar, or wheel with four or five radii; it is fome what 
convex at the centre. 
A glacialis ; found in France. 
t. A. reticulata; found in France near Chaffins. 
ft A. Aurantiaca. 
17. A. equellris; in the fandllone in Saxony. 
$. A/ ophiara; in Italy and Germany, in marble, and 
with fdlitary rays in a yellow Ihining landllone. 
1. A. peftinata; at Pappenheim, in llaty limeftone. 
x. A. multiradiata; near Stutgard, with the rays aggre¬ 
gate. 
A. Caput Medufie; found generally in mountains of 
chalk, limeftone, or fandllone. 
For a delcription of this llrange filh in its recent Hate, 
fee Asterias, vol. ii. p. 301. In the Afta Eruditorum, 
we have an accurate figure and a very remarkable ac¬ 
count of one which was found foffil, and preferved in a 
lingularly perfeft manner in Hone. The llone in which 
it was found was of the fiflile or llaty kind; and it was 
fo large as to extend over a piece of this itone of four 
feet in length, and between three and four in breadth. 
The body of the filh, from which all the reft feem origi¬ 
nally to have arifen, lay at one corner of this llone, and 
the arms extended themfelves lengthways in a very dif- 
tinft and natural manner the whola length of the llone ; 
and from thefe there parted, on every fide, other fmaller 
ones; and thefe were finally divided into others more mi¬ 
nute, in fuch a manner as to reprelent the nicelt painting. 
Ad. erndit. ann. 1725. p. 377. 
The ltudy of foftils is more improved by this fiugle fpe- 
cimen than by thoulands of others, and by the realonings 
of almoft as many authors. The foftils called entrochi 
have always perplexed the writers on thefe fubjefts to ac¬ 
count for: fome having judged them a.fort of itony vege¬ 
table ; lome a lufus natures ; and others, as different things 3 
