(in the Mosaic records) relate an occurrence which is adequate to the production of all the consequences that come to our knowledge and this by the confusion attendant on one sudden shock. These hints, though very concise, we have thought proper to suggest by way of introduction to a report on Mr. Parkinson's second volume of Organic Remains of a former World." We remember the time when Divines were alarmed at the speculation that any species of animal called into existence by the Great Maker of all things, might suffer extinction; " individuals," said they," perish, but the species remains." We confess that we never discerned the cogency of this argument. Amid the wreck of nature, many of her productions might perish: they were not abolutely indispensable, surely, to the future world. We go further, and believe, that some have perished; and this perhaps in great mercy to mankind. For who knows, what consumption of the products of the earth was necessary to support those creatures, and who can tell whether under the diminished fertility of the ground, they might not have contended too effectually for food against the true lord of the soil, however reduced to labour, and to earn his subsistence by the sweat of his brow? In the volume before us, Mr. P. does not so much as allude to such devourers: but, as his first volume treated on vegetables, this treats on a class of animals that till lately were considered as forming a part of the vegetable tribes. Modern discoveries have placed them as a connecting link between the two kingdoms and has included them under the name of Zoophytes, or animal plants. a list of names from which they would derive neither instruction nor amusement; but we content ourselves with stating that Mr. P. examines and describes a variety of tubipores, madrepores, alcyonias, &c.; and no less than twenty-one different species of encrinites. He notices, also, obscure hints concerning others; and congratulates his native island, that of these fossils fourteen are found in differeut parts of the country. In our first volume, pagé 840, we described under the title of " great effects from little causes," the labours of those millions of creatures, the diminutiveness of which, together with the difficulty of observing and comprehending their nature and manners, shall be admitted in excuse of the inattention of former ages to them. These, we know, exist; and in infinite numbers. Whether others allied to them in some respects by nature, though diversified, may not at this time people the bottom, the rocks, the recesses, the clefts, the depths and the shallows of the ocean, what mortal shall dare to affirm? Probability is the utmost to which our powers extend; and the probability is, that all parts of the great deep swarm with life; and that too in forms, of which we have no conception, nor can have; till fortunate circumstances place specimens within our observation. The first class of these animals, Corals, is likely to be known to the generality of our readers, from the frequency of specimens of different kinds. We would not be understood to assert that the corals which are familiar among us, are of the same species, with such as are found fossil, or that they closely resemble them; but they are sufficient for It is extremely difficult, as we cannot comparison by reference, for the purpose transcribe the plates, to convey to those of illustration; and we should be glad if to whom studies of this kind are new, we could on the other articles refer to ilany ideas on the nature, forms, or pro-lustrative subjects equally accessible. Mr. perties of this description of creatures; P. remarks, or to remind them of such objects by comparison as may serve the purposes of illustration. Those who are most familiar with them, are constantly detecting errors in the conjectures of themselves, or others; and our author in many places regrets exceedingly the absence of better information than he has been able to obtain. We shall not obtrude on our readers So great is the resemblance which corals bear to vegetables as to have long occasioned, as has been already observed, their being considered as subjects of the vegetable kingdom. They are in general attached to other substances by a part, analogous, in its form, to a root; from which proceeds a trunk, ramifying into branches, which, at certain times, appear to be set with flowerets and fruits of beautiful and fantastic forms. Their real nature was first ascertained by Peysonell, who, in 1727, communicated his observations respecting them to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. This accurate observer, not only shewed that corals yielded, on the application of heat, such products as pecularly belonged to animal substances; but also pointed out several particulars respecting the coral polype, which could not fail of determining, that corals belonged entirely to the animal kingdom. The observations of Jussiéu, Reaumur, Donati, and others, confirmed this fact; which, however, was not 80 generally received, but that several learned men still hesitated in admitting, that the forms which corals bear could be derived from the powers of animal life alone. All doubts were, however, removed by the observations of Mr. Ellis, in his essay on the Natural History of Corallines, and of many curious and uncommon Zoophytes. this circumstance direct our contemplation! A body, differing from any animal substance now known, has been formed, by the ener gies of animal life, in the depths of the ocean of a former world; and is now found imbedded in a rock, many miles inland, and at a considerable height above the sea and these, wonderful as they are, are not the only circumstances of this case, which, in the present state of our knowledge, may be considered as inexplicable. The substance, of which this body is composed, has undergone a most extraordinary change: originally formed chiefly of carbonic acid and lime, with a small portion of animal matter, it has now become a mass, in which, except a portion of animal matter, these substances are no longer to be found: the space which was formerly allotted to them being now filled almost entirely with the earth of Aint: and to add to the, wonder, the silicified mass is found in bedded in lime. Under the division Madrepores, our author alludes to the impositions which cunning has practised on credulity: we may ask whether it be not a great benefit to be relieved from the effects of such By the experiments of Mr. Hatchett, instituted for the purpose of ascertaining the component parts, as well as the mode of forination, of different zoophytes, our knowledge respecting these animals has been very considerably increased. He was enabled by these experiments to ascertain, that corals, and the numerous tribe of zoophytes, with which they are connected, differ in compo-artifice, by better knowledge and whesition, from the varieties of bone and shell, ther science can be more honourably enonly by the nature and quantity of the hard-gaged than in conferring such benefits? ening principle, and by the state of the sub- One of the fossil corals which has been stance with which it is mixed or connected. considered as belonging to this family, is the The porcellaneous shells, such as cyprece, lapis arachneolithi, or spider-stone, respect, &c. were found to be composed of animal ing which the celebrated Bruckman wrote an gluten and carbonate of lime; and to resem- ingenious disquisition in a letter to his friend ble, in their mode of formation, the enamel the learned Ritter. From this it appears of teeth the earthy matter being blended that stones, which fron their marks and with the animal gluten. The pearly shells, form, bore a resemblance to the body of or those composed of nacre or mother-o'-pearl, a spider, from which the head and legs such as patella, &c. he found to be com- had been removed, were frequently em posed of carbonate of lime, and a gelatinous,ployed in some parts of Germany as a powerCartilaginous, or membranaceous substance; ful charin for the cure of all kinds of hæmorr and that they resembled bone, in their hard-hages. These stones, according to the re ening matter being secreted and deposited ceived vulgar opinion in those parts, were upon the membranaceous substance. : supposed to have been generated and voided We find these remains imbedded in our by a spider. It was also imagined by the hardest marbles, in which situation they country people, that every spider, remarkhave undergone changes that have left able for its magnitude, contained one of these stones: to obtain the expulsion of which, but a small portion of their original matthe spider was to be enclosed in a glass vessel ter; (one of Mr. P's most interesting in which was also placed valerian or finely experiments, is the discovery of the re- powdered sugar. Bruckman, however, shews mains of animal matter, in some of these that the spider-stone is nothing else but 4 finty bodies, page 166), but have sub-pertrified antediluvian coral, such as has been stituted matters so entirely different, yet preserving the primitive form, as may well excite the astonishment of the beholder. Mr. P. expresses this astonishment in the following language. To what a remote period of past time, and to what astonishing changes in the structure of the surface, at least, of this globe, dues named the Indian astroites, and that the fabulous account of it has most probably been derived from its spots, which are not unlike those which are discoverable on the belly of the spider, and from its form, which frequent ly agrees with that of the body of a spider. This latter circumstance he however attribut ed to the cunning employment of art; and adds, that these stones generally far exceed in weight and size that of any spider or tárantula that is known, not excepting the celebrated enormous Brasilian spider named ★hamdu-guaca. Mr. P. is very learned on the subject of fossil Alcyonia; they were long considered as fruits, of which they have indeed the general appearance. They resemble figs, pears, oranges, &c. and have the air of having falen from trees, and undergone petrification in the earth. This par anticularly meets the writer's attention, and together with his remarks on the nature of sponges is worthy of notice. The little conformity between such corals as are now fished up from the se, and those which are discovered in a fossil state, is converted by our author into argument which contributes support to opinions we have already expressed. I find myself under the necessity of acknowledging, that I am not certain of the existence of the recent analogue of any really mineralized coral. This dissimilarity between the creatures of this and the creatures of the former world, is a circumstance which appears to be so inexplicable, that I can only admit it, without attempting to account for it. It however furnishes us, I think, with a strong argument against that theory, which supposes the changes which this planet has undergone are all attributable to the constant, regular, and gradual processes of nature, which have been acting from an indefinite period of time, aided by the occasioned heavings of strata, effected by subterraneous heat. By this system -by the gradual interchange of situation between land and water, we might account for the mountains of fossil coral which are found at considerable distances from the sea, were it not that so little agreement is observable between the fossil and the recent coral. Had the coral of the mountain and the coral of the sea been constantly the same, it would, indeed, have furnished a powerful evidence of the gradual change of relative place in the strata, which were once covered by the ocean, but which are now thousands of feet above its surface: the gradual receding of the sea would have sufficed for the explanation. But how, according to this theory, shall we explain the disagreement between the coral of the mountain and the coral of the sea? I see no explanation which can be thus obtained; every thing being upposed to have proceeded in its regular course, the animals of the first creation must then have exactly resembled those of the present hour. Some vast change, of powerful and even universal influence, must be sought for, to explain this wonderful circumstance: and such, doubtless, can only be found in the destruction of a former world. Thus, indeed, we shall be enabled to account for the existence of various animals, in a mineral state, whose analogues are unknown; but it must be admitted, that even this circumstance is not sufficient to account for the existence of animals at the present period, of which no traces can be found in the ruins of that former world. Count Marsilli, who carefully examined not only the physical, but the chemical pro perties of these bodies, observes that they are all surrounded by a porous leather-like bark: and that the interior substance, is, in some, a jelly-like and in others, a mass of light ash coloured acicular spines, which prick the hands on being handled, in the same manner as do the spines of the plant called the In-. dian fig. From the different colours as well as forms which some of the species of these substances possess, they have obtained names expressive of their resemblance to certain fruits. Thus the alcyonium lyncurium, being of a globose form, of a fibrous internal structure, of a tubercular surface, and of a yellow colour, has been termed the sea orange: the a. bursa being of a sub-globose form, of a pulpy substance, and of a green colour, has been termed the green sea-orange or sea apple: the a. cydonium, which is of a roundish form, and of a yellow colour, has been distinguished as the sea-quince: and the a. ficus, from a very close resemblance to the fig in its form, has been called the sea-fig. The sponge is a fixed, flexible animal, very torpid, varying in its figure, and composed either of reticulated fibres, or masses of small spicule interwoven together, which clothed with a living gelatinous flesh full of small mouths or holes on its surface, by which it sucks in and throws out the water. are The vitality of sponges had been suspected by the ancients, even in the time of Aristothe; they having perceived a particular niotion in their substance, as if from shrinking, when they tore them of the rocks. This opinion of their possessing a degree of animal life was also entertained in the time of Pliny. Count Marsilli confirmed this opinion by ou serving, on their being taken out of the sea, a systolic and diastolic motion, in certain little round holes, which lasted until the water they had contained was quite dissipated. Móns. Feysonell supposed sponges to have been formed by certain worms, which inhabited the labyrinthean windings of the sponge; and believed, that whatever life was found in these substances, existed in these worms, and not in the substance of the sponge, which he was convinced, was an inanimate body. This point was, however, determined by Mr. Ellis, who in a letter to Dr. Solander, relates the observations which he had made; by which he ascertained, that these worms, which he found in the sponge in great numbers, were a very small kind of nereis, or sea scolopendra; and that they were not the fabricators of the sponge, but had pierced their way into its soft substance, and inade it only their place of retreat and security. Upon examining, in sea water, a variety of the crumb of bread sponge, the tops of which were full of tubular cavities or papilla, he could plainly observe these little tubes to receive and pass the water to and fro; so that he inferred, that the sponge is an animal sui generis, whose mouths are so many holes or ends of branched tubes, opening on its surface; with these, he supposes, if receives its nourishment, and discharges, like the polypes, its excrements. Mr. Ellis also discovered, that the texture is very different in different species of sponge : some being composed wholly of interwoven reticulated fibres, whilst others are composed of little masses of straight fibres of different sizes, from the most minute spicula to strong elastic shining spines, like small needles of one-third of an inch long; besides these, he observes, there is an intermediare sort, between the reticulated and the finer fascicu lated kinds, which seen to partake of both sorts. Respecting the inferior termination of the trunk of this animal our knowledge is so exceedingly limited, as not to have furnished us with sufficient materials to have allowed its mention in the preceding character of this animal. Our readers will readily suppose that a composition' comprising so many thousands of feeble joints, most of them but slightly connected with their supports, of an inch in substantial diameter, must and those supports not above a tenth part needs be liable to fracture and dislocation sioned by such a convulsion as the deluge? suppose would be the destruction occa That fossil which is usually called the stone lilly, but which is in truth an animal, has undergone an extremely close from causes of daily occurrence, and only examination by our author: and as it af-moderate activity. What then may we fords an instance of the wonderful exertions of creative wisdom, we shall transcribe Mr. P's calculation of the number of members contained in its head and arms. The number of joints comprised in its stalk is unknown; as no complete specimen has been found. Of length of this stalk is uncertain. course the A careful examination ascertains the curious fact, that, independant of the number of pieces which may be contained in the vertebral column, and which, from its probable great length, may be very numerous, the fossil skeleton of the superior part of this animal consists of at least twenty-six thousand pieces. To shew this, the following statement is annexed; and that we find any specimen sufficiently preserved to give us an insight into their structure is much more wonderful, than their rarity. Not more than two or three recent specimens allied in nature to this Zoophyte are known to the curious. The quantities of this kind of animal found in the same quarries are very great; and the varieties of structure are so con siderable as to justify the idea of many different species. The cap encrinites is found throughout a circuit of several miles in extent; and what Mr. P. observes on that subject, is true of many others. We at present know little more of it than, cerely regret if the author were to muthat the pertrified remains of its vertebral tilate the communication of his senticolumn, either in detached pieces, or agglu-ments, yet we hope to see the ensuing votinated together in masses of limestone or marble, have long been found in quarries of an immense extent in some of the northern counties of this island. Mr. Da Costa remarks, that the whole metallic tract of the county of Derby is, as it were, one continued quarry of this marble; most of the strata of limestone are of this kind, it being the common stone which is burnt for lime. The upper parts of these strata, he observes, are always filled with amazing quantities of these bodies and other marine remains, which seem to have been lodged there by subsidence; and to have formed a crust over the limestone. This crust is generally of a very great thickness, and when they have passed it, they find the limestone to contain fewer marine remains: and at greater depths it even becomes quite pure and free from them. The marble does not always display the forms of these remains with equal fineness and perfection: Rickledale, Monyash, and Breks, he mentions as affording the most beautiful. At present, none perhaps, exceeds that which is obtained in the neighbourhood of Ashford in the Waters. Da Costa remarked, fifty years since, of the Derbyshire marble, that it is degraded by the common name of limestone; and the country people, ignorant of its value only burn it for lime, although for hardness, beauty, and susceptibility of polish, it may with the most esteemed foreign marbles. Mr. Mawes, in his Instructive Mineralogy of Derbyshire, observes, that the limestone, the whole of which stratum is composed of marine exuviæ, is of various thickness, from four fathoms to more than two hundred; beneath which, separated from the former by a stratum of toadstone, it is ascertained that there is another stratum of limestone, beyond which no 'mine in Derbyshire has penc trated. lumes completed with as little delay, and do justice to their subject. As the order at no greater expense, than is necessary to adopted by Mr. P advances towards classes of animal life with which the public is more familiar, they will present impor tant advantages above what is already published, in respect to illustration by comparison; and of these we shall not fail to take all due advantages. Midas; or, a Serious Inquiry concerning Taste and Genius; including a Proposal for the certain Advancement of the Elegant Arts, &c. By Anthony Fisgrave, LL.D. crown 8vo. pp. 224. Price 7s. Murray, London 1808. We certainly have read this volume, and can safely commend the execution of it so far as concerns the paper and print; there are passages in it, too, that we understand, and the tenor of which we approve. But, considered as a whole it is injudicious, for the author gives his readers too much trouble to find out a meaning; and after they have so done, they are not certain that the author's meanvieing is the same as that which they have discovered. Whether this book may not contain mysterious allusions to certain parts of the conduct of a certain body of artists, on certain occasions, we are at a loss to determine. It may be very severe on Messrs. Pallette, Pencil and Co.; nay, we apprehend that the patrons of art, not excluding the sacred character of Majesty itself, are glanced at in it: but, the author to secure himself from prosecution for a libel, and to puzzle the attorney-general who would never be able to make out his inuendoes, has also puzzled his readers. Had Dr. Fisgrave taken advice of Justice Shallow, who sagaciously observes, "there are but two wayseither to reveal a thing, or to conceal it;" it might have proved to his advantage; while the public would have concluded that We believe that we have communicated to our readers as accurate a notion, though a general one, of the nature and contents of these volumes, as our limits admit. The learning and diligence display ed in them, are truly honourable to their author. For the nature of the subject, and its difficulties, he is not responsible: that he has endeavoured to lessen those difficulties, will be gratefully accepted by succeeding naturalists. We repeat our regret that the expense of the coloured plates annexed, which are truly laudable, with other considerations, should place these dissertations beyond the reach of major part of students. We should sin the The author had a meaning, and no doubt, The reader had the sense to find it out. But that the author may not suffer under the dulness of our lamp-exhausted faculties, we shall permit him to give an analysis of his book in his own words, |