contributed materially to the advancement of this branch of Natural History in Germany, France, and also in Great Britain. Petrifactions are no longer viewed as objects of mere curiosity, as things isolated and unrelated to the rocks of which the crust of the Earth is composed; on the contrary, they are now considered as one of the most important features in the strata of all regions of the earth. By the regularity and determinate nature of their distribution, they afford characters which assist us in discriminating not only single beds, but also whole formations of rocks; and in this respect they are highly interesting to the geognostical inquirer. To the geologist this beautiful branch of Natural History opens up numerous and uncommonly curious views of nature in the mineral kingdom: it shews him the commencement of the formation of organic beings,--it points out the gradual succession in the formation of animals, from the almost primeval coral near the primitive strata, through all the wonderful variety of form and structure observed in shells, fishes, amphibious animals, and birds, to the perfect quadruped of the alluvial land; and it makes him acquainted with a geographical and physical distribution of organic beings in the strata of the globe, very different from what is observed to hold in the present state of the organic world. The zoologist views with wonder and amazement those hosts of fossil animals, sometimes so similar to the present living species, at other times so far removed from them in form and structure. He compares the fossil orders, genera and species, with those now inhabiting the earth’s surface, or living in its waters, and discovers that there is a whole system of animals in a fossil state different from the present. Even the physiologist, in the various forms, connections, and relations of the parts of those animals, obtains new facts for his descriptions and reasonings. Such, then, being the nature of this branch of Natural History, it is not surprising that, when once understood, it should have many and zealous cultivators, and occupy the talents of men of learning and sagacity. In our time, Cuvier, the celebrated Professor of Natural History in Paris, has eminently distinguished himself by his numerous discoveries, accurate descriptions, and rational views, on this subject. His great work on Fossil Organic Remains, of which a new edition is now in progress, is the most splendid contribution to Natural History furnished by any individual of this age.