SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY.

Before the structure of the earth's surface was at all understood, and while even the name of Geology was unknown, attention had been directed to the curious fact, that various objects resembling shells teeth and bones of animals were frequently met with in sea cliffs, and even in excavations made at a considerable elevation above the sea level. These were from time to time collected together and, first in Italy, then in England, Museums were formed of them, and they were arranged according to the fancies of their respective owners or according to the small degree of light which illuminated what might, at that day, be almost termed an occult science.

Among the earlier and perhaps, considering all circumstances, the most creditable and valuable of these collections, was one of English and extraneous fossils formed after great labour and at considerable expence by Dr. John Woodward, a learned Physician, who lived at the beginning of the last century. “And”, says the editor of his catalogue, “he carried on his researches for a course of near forty years, with a passion for the improvement of natural knowledge in general and with a particular view to evince the universality of the Deluge.” Let us give him due credit for the “passion” he certainly displayed for Natural History and excuse, as belonging to the age in which he lived rather than to himself, that love of theorising upon imperfect and inconclusive data which he certainly possessed to a very remarkable degree.