Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/454

 PAUEOLOGUS

410

PAIJEONTOLOOY

(Olford, 1899) ; Wesselv. Slwlwi rur Palttographie und Papyrus- fOTSchuntJ CLeipzig, lifUi — ); Gakdthausen, Geschichte tier griichxschen Tachygriiphit im AUerthum in Archiv fiir StenouTaphie (1905); HOHLWEIN, La papyroloyie yrecque (Louvain, 1905).

Latin.— Mabillon, De re diplomatica, I (Paris, 1601); Du- CANOE Gtossarium medite et iiifima: latiaiUilis: Scriptura; Nataus DE Waillv. EUmenU de paKoaraphie (Paris, 1838); Chassant, PaUoaraphie des chartes el des manuscrits du XI' au A' ill' siicle (Paris, 1876); Diet, des abbreviations laiiiies et frantaises (Paris, 1876): Prod, Manuel de paliographie latine du \'I' au XVUI' siicle (Paris, 1890; new od., 1910); Reusens, EUmmts de paUo- grapkie (Louvain, 1899); Blass, Lateinische Palaographie: MiJL- LER, Handbuch der klassischen AUertumsnissenscha/t, I (1892); Groeber, Grundriis der romanischen Philologie, I (1888), 157-196; Die schri/llichen Quellen; Paul, Grundrisa der germanischen Philo- logie, I (1901), 263-82; Meister, Grundriss der Geschichtswissen- acha/l, I (1906), 21-171; Bretholz, Lateinische Paliiographie: Steffens. Palaographie laline (Trier and Paris, 1908); MuSoz T Rn'ERO, Manual de paleografta diplomdtica espafiola (Madrid, 1890); Chrestomathia paleographica (Madrid, 1890); Thompson (see alx>ve, under Greek); Friedbich, Vchna Kniha paleogra- phie latinsU (Prague, 1898); Df.d-ii, V ,' ,. .< ,le paliographie et de bibliographic (.Paris. 18S0): M< ' ■le calligraphiqu^

de Tours in M(m. Acad. Inscript . '. \ ■ 1 I ! I^^.'i); Champol- UON, Paliographie des classiqiu^ m- 1 i[i>. 1837); Bond,

Thompson, and Warner, Occidenial .^ine.i u; the Palrrographical Soc. (London, 1873-83); Chatelain, Paliographie des classiques latins (Paris, 1884-97); Album paleographique de la Sociilt de I'Ecole des Chartes (Paris, 1887) ; IJqdrmont, Lecture et transcrip- tion des vieilles icrUures: Manuel de paliographie des X VI*. X VII'. XVIII' siecles (Caen, 1881); Gilbert, Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland (Dublin and London, 1874-84); Sanders, Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of England (Southampton, 1865-68); Idem, Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (South- ampton, 1878-84); McsAe des Archives Nationales, Docu- ments originaux de I'histoire de France (Paris, 1872) ; Mus^E des Archives D6partementai.es, Rccueil de facsimiles (Paris, 1878) ; Flammermont, .\lbum paleographique du nord de la France (Lille, 1896) ; Prou. Recueil de fac-similis d'icritures du XII' au X VII' sihde (Paris, 1904) : Koennecke, Bilderatlas der deutschen na- tional Litteratur (Marburg, 1894) (numerous facsimiles); de Vries, Album palieographicum (Leyden, 1909); Bond and Thompson in Palxographical Society^s Publications (London, 1874-94) (455 plates). Reorganized as The New Palseographical Society, the same Society has published, since 1903, various speci- mens of Greek and Latin writing (7th fasc, 1909).

Louis BRfiniER. Pal8Bolog:us, House op. See Byzantine Empire.

PalsBOntology (Xi57os tQv iraXaiHv 6imiii'), or the science of fo.^sils, deals with extinct or primeval ani- mals and plants. It treats of their characteristics, classification, life and habits, geographical distribu- tion, and succession. It embraces also whatever deductions may be drawn from these investigations for the history of the organisms and of the earth. Palseontologj-, therefore, is closely connected with geology, botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, and embryology, or ontogeny, which at the same time serve it as auxiliary sciences. The science of fossils is divided into palaeophytology {tf^vrdv, plant '), also called phj-topateontology, or paleobotany (/Sordi'i;, herb), treating of fossil plants, and palaeozoology (fifioc, animal), treating of extinct animals.

Historical Summary. — Even in antiquity fossil marine animals attracted the attention of a number of philosophers who, in .some measure, explained them correctly, dra%ving the conclusion that at one time there had been a different distribution of sea and land. The earliest of these philosophers was Xeno- phanes of Colophon, the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy (600 B. c). After him came Strabo, Seneca etc.; the earliest Christian observers were Tertullian of Carthage (160-230), and Euscbius of Ca;sarea (about 270-339). In the Middle Ages little attention was paid to fossils, which were generally regarded as products of a creative force of the earth (m plaslica, or virtus formativa), though a few men like Albertus Magnus, and later Leonardo da Vinci (14.52-1.519) held correct views on the subject. In the sixteenth century the first engravings of fossils were published by the .Swiss physician Conrad Gess- ner. It was not until a century later, however, that a few scholars, particularly the Englishmen, Robert Hooke, John Ray, and .John Woodward, vigorously maintained the organic origin of fossils. The opinion was still universal that fossils represented life de- stroyed by the flood, a theory championed especially

by .Scheuchzcr. William Smith (17tJ9-lS30) was the first to recognize the value of fo.ssils for the historical investigation of the strata of the earth, his theory being introduced into France by Alexander Brong- niart (1770-1847), who, with Cuvier (1769-1832), was the first to apply the principles of botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy to pala;ontology, whereby the latter became a science. The designation "pahe- outology", however, was first given it by a pupil of Cuvier, Ducrotay de Blainville, and the zoologist Fischer of Waldheim. Since then about one hundred thousand species of extinct organisms have been de- scribed. Cuvier and his successors, as d'Orbigny, Agassiz, d'Archiac, and Barrande, however, main- tained the catastrophic theory, that is, the doctrine that at the end of each geologic period the entire fauna was de'^troyed, and replaced by a new order of life. Darwin's "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (1S.59) proved a turning-point for these theories, for since that time the theory of descent was also applied to palaeontology, and to-day is generally accepted. We may especially mention the works on this subject by Kowalewsky, Riitiraeyer, Gaudry, Cope, W. Waagen, Neumayr, and Zittel.

The geological and pateontological collections of universities serve for the study of palaeontology and instruction in this science, as do also similar collections in museums of natural history. The national geolog- ical collections and geological societies have the same object. There are only two purely pala?ontological societies, the Swiss and the London; their object being the publication of palseontological works. Palaeozoology is cultivated almost exclusively by geologists; it is only in exceptional cases that zoolo- gists occupy themselves with this science, while phytopaliEontology is carried on mainly by botanists.

The object of palaeontological study is petrefaetions (from TT^rpoj, stone, and facere, to make), or fossils (Jossilis, what is buried). Fossils are those remains or traces of plants and animals which before the be- ginning of the present geological era found their way into the strata of the earth and have been preserved there. Most of the species thus found are extinct, but the more recent the strata the greater the number of extant species it contains. As implied by the word petrefaction, most palaeontological remains have been transformed into stone, but leaves and bones com- pletely incrustcd in limestone, and therefore petrified, have been found which belong to the present geolog- ical era and are, therefore, not considered fossils, whereas the skeletons of the mammoth and rhinoceros frozen in the ice of Siberia, or the insects preserved in amber are. The fossilization of the remains of plants and animals could take place only under very unusu;il conditions, for in the normal process of decay, only the hard parts of the bodies of animals at the most, as bones, teeth, shells of molluscs, etc., are preserved. Even these hard parts gradually disappear by dis- integration through atmospheric influences. One very important process of preser^'ation for primeval organisms is carbonization, which afTects plants par- ticularly; it takes place under water, air being ex- cluded. Most frequently, however, organic remains are completely penetrated by solutions of mineral matter and are thus in the literal sense mineralized or petrified. Generally the petrifying substance is car- bonate of lime, but silicious earth, and more rarely brown clay iron-ore, red iron-ore, zinc-spar, sulphide of zinc, black lead-ore etc., also contribute to produce fossils. The mineralization does not always destroy the original structure of the tissue, especially in case of silicatization. But there are still other means of preserving as fossils the remains of ancient organisms. Not infrequently such remains are covered by mineral waters with an envelope, the organic body itself was afterwards dissolved, leaving only ,an impression. On the other hand molluscs, echinoderms, corals, etc.,