Petrifactions. MIN E R A L O G Y. Petrifactions. 
ments which it finds there ; the whole niafs draws in nou- 
rilhment from it; the tube then fpontaneoufiy contraCls, 
and calls out the refidue of digeftion.” Richerand’s Phy- 
fiology, pp. 8 and 13. _ • 
The annexed figures are copied from fpecimens found 
in Bridgewick chalk-pit, near Lewes. Plate VIII. fig. 2. 
Alcyonium chonoides, partly expanded, «, the-tubuli 
arifing from the outer, and terminating on the inner, fur- 
face. b, foramina through which the radicle fibres palled. 
The mufcular coat is not feen in this fpecimen ; the fili- 
ceous matter which fills up its funnel-like cavity, having 
enveloped the external furface. A fragment of an Echinus 
is attached to the ftirp, near the bafe. Fig. 3, 4. flints de¬ 
riving their forms from the inferior part of the ftirp. See 
%• 7- Fig- 5 refembles fig. 1. The cavity is nearly filled 
with filex; fome of the tubular openings are vilible on 
the internal furface. Fig. 6. horizontal fieClion of a flint, 
fhowing the thicknefs of the integuments near the bafe. 
Fig. 7. a mafs of chalk, bearing on its laperior furface the 
impreflion of the fibrous integument of Alcyonium cho¬ 
noides. In the centre is imbedded a flint of a funnel- 
fhape, its margin and bafe poftefling an appearance fome- 
what fimilar to thofe of the fofiils before mentioned. The 
difference of form oblervable in thel'e flints doubtlefs ori¬ 
ginated from the infiltration of a greater or lefs propor¬ 
tion of filex. At c are lhovvn the radicle procefies palling 
from the bafe of the flint into the furrounding chalk. 
Linn. Tran/', vol. xi. 181 5. 
45. Helmintholithus fpongice, or petrified fponge. The 
Sp. crateriformis has been found near Paffrath in Swifler¬ 
land ; and the Sp. tupha, in Franconia. 
46. Helmintholithus efeharites. The fluftra has been 
found foil'd in the Netherlands, Franconia, and Swifler- 
land, in fandflone or calcareous foil. 
47. Helmintholithus tubularias. The Tubularia indi- 
vifa is found petrified in Gothland and Swiflerland, mar- 
moreous or arenareous. 
48. Helmintholithus corallinse. The Corallina corni- 
culata and barbata are found in Bohemia and Venice. 
49. Helmintholithus fertularias, the lertularia. Found 
in France and the Netherlands. 
50. Helmintholithus pennatulce, the Pennatula, or fea- 
pen. 
a. The Pennatula phofphorea ; found in the Nether¬ 
lands, and on Mount Baldo in Verona. 
(3. P. encrinus, in its expanded Hate, is found in Eng¬ 
land, Wirtemburg, Bohemia, Germany, &c. in marl or 
flint. In the contraCled ftate, called Jlone-lily, it is found, 
entire or in parts, in England, Swiflerland, Saxony, Ger¬ 
many, &c. 
y. P. cynomorion ; found foflil on Mount Randbergin 
Swiflerland. 
Thefe-and a multitude of other petrifaClions of marine 
animals found in the centre of continents and in moun¬ 
tains, embedded in various ftrata, atteft, beyond con tra¬ 
dition, the revolutions which the furface of this globe 
mull have experienced. Thefe animals mull have once 
lived in the places in which their remains are depofited in 
fuch abundance; and, if this be admitted, it necelfarily 
follows that the fea mull once have covered thofe regions 
which are now dry land, and which have been in this ftate 
as long as hiftory affords any record. If we examine thofe 
fofiils and their fituation, and combine the knowledge 
which we thus acquire with other fads, we may allure' 
ourl’elves, fays M. Lamarck, that the fea has not retired 
to its prefent bed, but in obedience to a flow, yet always 
adive, caufe; and that, by the inceflant operation of this 
caufe, it is probable that thofe parts of the globe which 
are now elevated will become again, in courfe of time, 
the bed of the fea, as they once have been, and that what 
is now fubmerged will become dry land. In thefe foflils 
may be traced proofs of the changes of climate which the 
fame fpot undergoes; for, among the foflil remains of 
living bodies now found in Europe, many of them could 
not exift in a living ftate in the prefent climate and tem- 
531 
peratureof the place in which; they are difeovered. Re¬ 
mains of (hell-fifli, inhabitants, of warm leas, and of the 
bones of elephants and crocodiles, difeovered in France 
and other countries, in which they are not to be found in 
a living ftate, are thought to exemplify this fad. This 
naturalift is induced to believe that thofe revolutions in 
the furface of the globe, which the exiftence of thefe foflils 
and their locality indicate, happened in a period prior to 
that of the moll ancient hiftory: he does not, however, 
fay previoufly to the formation of man ; and yet it is a An¬ 
gular fad that, amid all thefe monuments of the remote 
operations of nature, we find fcarcely any trace of the 
operations of man. Important as the ftudy of foflils is, 
M. Lamarck complains that fufficient attention has not 
been bellowed by naturalifts in charaderizing and de- 
feribing them ; and, while he exempts from the cenfure 
Mr. Brander an Englifhman, he brings the accufation 
home to his own countrymen, by obferving that, though 
in the fmall canton of Grignon, about feven leagues 
from Paris, an enlightened and perfevering philofopher 
(M. Defrance) had colleded at leall five hundred fpeci¬ 
mens of foflil fhells, more than three-fourths of them have 
remained undeferibed. His fpecimens, however, have 
been new beautifully and corredly copied on vellum by 
two ingenious artifts belonging to the Mufeum. Thefe 
foflil (hells, M. Lamarck obferves, are in the bed ftate of 
prefervation with refped to their fliape ; their fubftance 
is chalk, and not flint-; and they are embedded in a bank 
of calcareous land mixed with a little quartzous fluid. 
He fuppofes this bank to-run from eaft to weft, and to be 
a continuation of that which exills in Hampshire, where 
fimilar foflils, noticed by Mr. Brander, (“ Foflilia Han- 
tonienfis,”) are found ; and, if this conjecture be ad¬ 
mitted, the revolution which depofited them mult have 
been previous to the formation of the Britifti Channel. 
After this mtrodu£lion,-he proceeds to inform us that he 
purpofes, in this and fome lublequent memoirs, to exa¬ 
mine thefe (hells, or the toflil remains of marine animals 
without vertebras, for the purpoie of delineating their cha¬ 
racters. For the convenience of foreigners, he has added 
the Latin names of the genera and fpecies, with fome con- 
cife obfervations. We (hall merely name the genera : 
1. Chiton, or ofcabrion. 2. Patella, or limpet. 3. Fif- 
furella. 4. Emarginula. 5. Calyptrasa. 6. Conus. 7. 
Cyprasa. 8. Terebellum. 9. Oliva. 10. Ancilla. 11. 
Voluta. 12. Mitra. 13. Marginella. 14.'Cancellaria. 
15. Purpura. 16. Buccinum. 17. Terebra. 18. Harpa. 
19. Caflis. 20. Strombus. 21. Roltellaria. 22. Mu rex. 
23. Fufus. 24. Pyrula. Lamarck'sMetn. on the Foflils in 
the Environs of Paris, in the Annales (la Mufeum national, 
1804. 
Phytolithus, the lad genus of the clafs Petrifactions, 
includes vegetables, or fome of their parts, changed into- 
a foflil fubftance. Of this there are fix fpecies. 
1. Phytolithus totalis ; the whole plant. Found in 
various parts of Great Britain, moll commonly in the 
(hale lying over ftrata of coals or in fandftone, and in va¬ 
rious parts of Europe : it is always in the form of an im¬ 
preflion. Of the .thirty-one varieties the following only 
claim notice. 
_ a. Hippuris, or mare’s-tail; found in the coal-mines of 
Silefia and Germany. 
a. Various grades are found in Swiflerland, Bohemia, 
Silefia, and divers parts of Germany, in fchiftofe fvvine- 
ftone, and alumine, lying over beds of coal, rarely in flint. 
_ £. Stellate plants, as Gallium, Afperula, &c. in the coal¬ 
pits of England, France, and Germany. 
i. Pulmonaria, or lungwort; in the coal-pits of France- 
*. Athamanta, or ilone-parfley ; in Weftphalia and Si¬ 
lefia. 
A. Laferpitium, or lazar-wort; in Shroplhire near Cole- 
brook Dale. 
/*. Chasrophyllum, or chervil; in Silefia and Weftphalia. 
y. Anethum fceniculum, or fennel; in Upper Aullria 
and Weftphalia. 
<p. Va- 
