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Show 30 DILUVIAL THEORY. . 1 with accurate observ~tion and the interfere more ~erw~s Y f J! t In recent times, we may . l tficatlon o tac s. . syste. matic c .a s.s pid proO'ress h' fly to the careful determma- C Ie f attnbute our 1 a 0 . f h ·d r of successt• on m• mineral masses, by mean..s o twn o t e or c . t nd their regular superpos1t1on. their different .org~m.c conte~ ~~~uced by their system to con-llut the old dtluvtnhst~ ~ei~ toO'ether instead of discriminatfouud all the groups o s ra a to one cause and to one brief • £ all appearances o mg,-to re cr . t f causes acting throughout a long period, not to a varte YTlo the phenomena only as they . f pochs ley saw succ. ecsdst otn o ee them· someti.m es mi· srepresentina facts, and at o desu o se . ' -" 1 conclusions from correct data. l t. deducmO' 1a se . f ot Jer Imes f h . dices three centuries were o Under the i~fluence o sue pre~~r of 'years in our own times, as little avml, as the same nu~ d t propel the vessel against when we are no longer reqmre o the force of an adverse current. . . 0' the It may be well to forewarn our readers, that m tracmo 1 history of geology from the close of the seventeent~e t~~~~ end of the eighteenth century, the~ must ex~~c:stoof the ad· 'ed with accounts of the retardation, as we 4 • t pi f the science It will be our irksome task to pomt ou vance o • d 1 1 'e from the frequent revival of exploded errors, an . t le re aps t sound to the most absurd opini?~s. It will be n~sce~::~u; d 11 On futile reasoning and visionary hypothesi ' we f · t . d or contro· the most extravagant systems were o ten mv: el t h f the verted by men of acknowledged talent. He c 0. 1 t f Geoloay is the history of a constant and vlo en progress o o . d t · sane· struO'gle between new opinions and ancie~t oc rmes, sed . od by the implicit faith of many generatiOns, and suppo l t10ne . Tl · · therefore, a • to rest on scriptural authority. 1e mqt~Iry, h'l hy thouO'h highly interesting to one who studi~s the ~ 1 ~so~m of th~ human mind, is singular!! barr~n of mstructwn o who searches for truths in physical science. S ill that Quirini, in 1676 *' con ten de d ' m· opposl· t t·o n to cb oda,i es to the diluvian waters could not have conveyed heavy ver the summit of mountam. s, s.m ce t1 l e agi. ta tt' on of the tsheas tn ea nd • (as Boyle had demonstrated) extended to great dep ' * De Testuceis fossilibus Mus. Septu.li,mi.. . h _, r, .. vHrS t The OI>ini.ous of Boyle, allude!} to by Qu·m ·m · , were rn ubhs eu lL ~~" 1- QUt:R.INl-LISTElt-llOOKE • . 31 still less could the testacea, as some pretended, have Jived in these diluvial waters, for " the duration of the flood was brief, and the heavy rains must have destroyed the saltness of the sea!" He was the first writer who ventured to maintain that the universality of the Noachian cataclysm ought not to be insisted upon. As to the nature of petrified shells, he conceived that as earthy particles united)n the sea to form the shells of mo1lusca, the same crystallizing process might be effected on the land, and that, in the latter case, the germs of the animals might have been disseminated through the substance of the rocks, and afterwards developed by virtue of humidity. Visionary as was this doctrine, it gained many proselytes even amongst the more sober reasoners of Italy and Germany, for it conceded both that fossil bodies were organic, and that the diluvial theory could not account for them. In the mean time, the doctrine that fossil shells had never belonged to real animals, maintained its ground in England, where the agitation of the question began at a much later period. Dr. Plot, in his " Natural History of Oxfordshire," (1677,) attributed to "a plastic virtue latent in the earth" the origin of fossil shells and fishes; and Lister, to his accurate account of British shells, in 1678, added the fossil species, under the appellation of turbinated and bivalve stones. " Either," said he, " these were terriginous, or, if otherwise, the animals they so exactly represent Aave become extinct." 'rhis writer appears to have been the first who was aware of the continuity over large districts of the principal groups of strata in the British series, and who proposed the construction of regular geological maps. The "Posthumous 'iVorks of Robert Hooke, M.D.," well known as a great mathematician and natural philosopher, before, in a short article ehtitled "On tho bottom of t.he Sea." From observa· tions collected from the divers of the pearl fishery, Boyle had ascertained that when the waves were six or seven feet high above the surface of the water, there were no signs of agitation at the depth of fifteen fathoms ; and that even during heavy gales of wind, tho motion of the water was exceedingly diminished at the depth of twelve or fifteen feet. He had also learnt from some of his informants, that there were currents running in opposite directions at difFerent depths.-Boyle's W orks, vol. iii. p. 110. London, 17 44. The reader will see, in our chapter on "Marine Currents," that Boyle's doctrine must be received with some modification. |