From the observations of Werner and others, it appears, that the most simple animals are those first met with in a mineralized state; that these are succeeded by others more perfect, and which are contained in newer formations; and that the most perfect, as quadrupeds, occur only in the newest formation. But we naturally inquire, have no remains of the human species been hitherto discovered in any of the formations? Judging from the arrangement already mentioned, we would naturally expect to meet with remains of man in the newest of the formations. In the writings of ancient authors there are descriptions of anthropolithi. In the year 1577, Fel. Plater, Professor of Anatomy at Basle, described several fossil bones of the elephant found at Lucerne, as those of a giant at least nineteen feet high. The Lucernese were so perfectly satisfied with this discovery, that they caused a painting to be made of the giant, as he must have appeared when alive, assumed two such giants as the supporters of the city arms, and had the painting hung in their public hall. The Landvoigt Engel, not satisfied with this account of these remains, maintained that our planet, before the creation of the present race of men, was inhabited by fallen angels, and that these bones were part of the skeletons of some of those miserable beings. Scheuchzer published an engraving and description of a fossil human skeleton, which proved to be a gigantic species of salamander or proteus. Spallanzani describes a hill of fossil human bones in the island of Cerigo; but this also is an error, as has been satisfactorily shewn by Blumenbach. Lately, however, a fossil human skeleton has been imported into this country from Guadaloupe, by Sir Alexander Cochrane. It is imbedded in a block of calcareous stone, composed of particles of limestone and coral, and which, like the aggregations of shells found on the limestone coasts in some parts of this country, has acquired a great degree of hardness. It is therefore an instance of a fossil human petrifaction in an alluvial formation. The engraving here given is copied from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London; and the following description of the fossil remains it exhibits is that of Mr Konig, which has been drawn up with great care. “The situation of the skeleton in the block was so superficial, that its presence in the rock on the coast had probably been indicated by the projection of some of the more elevated parts of the left fore-arm. “The operation of laying the bones open to view, and of reducing the superfluous length of the block at its extremities, being performed with all the care which its excessive hardness, and the relative softness of the bones, required, the skeleton exhibited itself in the manner represented in the annexed drawing (Pl. I.) with which my friend Mr Alexander has been so good as to illustrate this description.