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Show IlOORE ON EXTINCT SPECIES. 32 h k ,, . . " A Discourse of Eart qua es, d in 1705 contammg, · · 1668 b ap~eare informed by his editor, was wntten m ' ut whiCh, we are : ds * Hooke frequently refers to . d at subsequent peno • 1 . . reVISe . d E r h authors who wrote before us time the best Itahan an ~ ng IS . h' ·k . 1 b' t . but there are no passages m IS wor s ?n gt~log~: ts~l~e;a:;icipated in the enlarged views of Steno Imp Y1 and Li~sgte r, ao r of hI'S co ntemporary Wood ward, in r.e gard . to the geograpl l l.C a1 ex t en t of certain groups of s. trataf. Hl 1s treatise. , 11 owever, I.S tl1 e most philosophical productiOn o t ·l at dag ·e , m regard to the causes of former changes in the orgamc an mor-ganic kingdoms of nature. " However trivial a thing," he says, '' a rotten shel 1 may n ear to some, yet these monuments of nature.are more cert~~ tokens of antiquity than coins or medals, smce. the best of those may be counterfeited or made by art and design, as may 1 b ks manuscripts and inscriptions, as all the learned are aso oo, ' 11 · d" now sufficiently satisfied has often been ac.tu~ y prac~Ise , & . · " and though it must be granted that It IS very d1fficult toc~~ad them (the records of nature) and to r~ise a chr~nology out of them, and to state the intervals of the time wherem ~uc~ or such catastrophes and mutations have happened, yet 1t. IS not impossible," &c. t Respecting the. extinctio~. of species, Hooke was aware that the fossil ammomtes, naut1h, and many other shells and fossil skeletons found in England, were of different species from any then known; but he doubted whether the species had become extinct, observing that the l~nowl~~gc of naturalists of all the marine species, especially those.Inha.b~tmg the deep sea, was very deficient. In some parts of his wntmgs, however, he leans to the opinion that species had been lost; ~nd, in speculating on this subject, he even suggests that ther.e m~ght be some connection between the disappearance of certam kmds of animals and plants, and the changes wrought by earth- quakes in former ages : for some speci.e s, he observes 'th Wl great saO'acity are " peculia·r to certain places, and not to be found elos ewhe'r e. If, then, such a place had been swa 11 ow ed up, it is not improbable but that those animate beings may *Between the year 1688 and h1. s death, m. 17 03 , 11 e read severa1 memoir.s to the Royal Society, and delivered lectures on val'ious subjects, relating to fossl 1r emains and the effects of earthquakes. t Post. Works, Lecture Feb. 29, 1G88. HOOKE ON EXTINCT SPECII1:s. 33 have been destroyed with it; and this may be true both of aerial and aquatic animals: for those animated bodies, whether vegetables or animals, which were naturally nourished or refreshed by the air, would be destroyed by the water*," &c. Turtles, he adds, and such large ammonites as are found in Portland, seem to have been the productions of the seas of hotter countries, and it is necessary to suppose that England once lay undPr the sea within the torrid zone! To explain this and similar phenomena, he indulges in a variety of speculations concerning changes in the position of the axis of the earth's rotation, a shifting of the earth's centre of gravity, ''analogous to the revolutions of the m.agnetic pole," &c. None of these conjectures, however, are proposed dogmatically, but rather in the hope of promoting fresh inquiries and experiments. In opposition to the prejudices of his age, we find him arguing that nature had not formed fossil bodies, " for no other end than to play the mimic in the mineral kingdom"-that figured stones were " really the several bodies they represent, or the mouldings of them petrified,'' and " not, as some have imagined, a ' lusus naturre,' sporting herself in the needless formation of useless beings t·" It was objected to Hooke, that his doctrine of the extinction of species derogated from the wisdom and power of the Omnipotent Creator; but he answered, that, as individuals die, there may be some termination to the duration of a species; and his opinions, he declared, were not repugnant to Holy Writ : for the Scriptures taught that our system was dege- "' Posth. Works, p. 327. t Posth. Works, Lecture Feb. 15, 1688. Hooke explained, with considerable clearness, the different modes wherein organic substances may become lapidified, and, among other illustrations, he mentions some silicified palm-wood brought from Africa, on which M. de Ia Hire had read a memoir to the Royal Academy of France, (June, 1692,) wherein he had pointed out not only the tubes running the length of the trunk, but the roots at one extremity. De la Hire, says Hooke, also treated of certain trees found petrified in "the river that passes by Haknn, in tho ldngdom of Ava, and which has for the space of ten leagues the virtue of petrifying wood." It is an interesting fact, that the silicified wood of the Irawadi shoulcl have attracted attention more than one hundred years ago. Remarkable discoveries have been recently made there of fossil animals and vegetables by Mr. Crawfurd and Dr. '.V a.llich.-See Geol. Trans. vol. ii. part 3, p. 377, Second Series. De la Hire cites Father Duchatz, in the second volume of " Observations made in the Indies by the Jesuits." VoL.!, . D |