Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/720

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both the grand requifites for the growth of plants and ani- mals, that is a proper matrix, and proper nouriihment. Lang, Hift. Lapid, Figurat.

3. That if fuch a generation of thefe bodies could be allowed, their growth up to the ftate in which we find them, muft have been from their fmall feminia, either inftantaneoufly or fuccef- fively, as in other plants and animals; but it is eafily proved from their ftate, and the ftate of the bodies in which we find them, that neither of thefe can poflibly have been the cafe. Their growing inftantaneoufly to their full fize from a fmall feminium, is neither poffible from the nature of the place, that being ufually a hard ftone, which cannot poflibly give way to fo quick an expanfion; nor natural, as all other ani- mal and vegetable bodies grow from their feminia to their full fize, by flow and regular degrees; and this fort of growth can never be allowed to thefe bodies, were it only that the fe- minia themfelves would be alfo petrified, and their fubftance would then reiift any expanfive fall within. If they were then formed from feminia brought from the fea through fub- terranean paflages, they muft alfo have been found in all forts of places among all forts of bodies, and that fingly ; whereas on the contrary, we find them ufually in clufters together, and that much more frequently in fome bodies than in others, and in fome never.

4. Another unanfwerable objection to the fuppofition of their arifing from feminia of the animal or vegetable they repre- fent is this; that if they did fo, they muft needs grow into the whole animal, or the whole plant, and not form a part of it only. Thus why fhould we fuppofe, that the feminium of an oifter being conveyed thro' lubtrrranean paflages to the place where we find the foffil body, fhould have grown not into a complete fifh, but only into a fingle (hell ; for it is much more common to find both this and the ocher bivalvr foflils fingle, than in the pair, even when buried in ftone, and wholly out of the way of being fcparated by accidents. And in the other cafe of vegetables, if the foflils of that clals are owing to feminia of the plants tbemftlves, why fhould fuch a feminium produce only the cone of a fir, the catkin of a hazel, or the fragment of a leaf of a fern inftead of the whole plant or tree? and to what fort of feminia are we to fuppofe we owe the bufoniue and gloflbpetrse, and filiquaftra, with a number of parts of animals befide ? Are we to think, that the feminium of a fifh when in the earth produces only a tooth, or a part of its palate; or that the feminium of an echinus marinus, or fea hedge-hog, produces only one of that creatures fpines, or the bare impreflion of them on a flint.

5. It feems an infuperable difficulty, to fuppofe that the form of an animal or a plant, or a part of one or the other could

-any way be delineated in the body of a hard ftone, or that a part of that ftone could any way be moulded or fafbioned into the fhape of fuch an animal or vegetable, unlefs fome certain bo- dy of that kind and bignefs, were actually received into the body of the ftone to determine its particles in that part to af- fume that figure; and it is plain to reafon, that nothing but the very fhell or plant itfelf, could have done in this cafe, from the nice traces and delineations that are exhibited, even of its moft minute parts.

6. The error of thofe who fuppofe all thefe figures of foflils owing to the (hooting of various falts, is evident from this, that they are always regular in their fhape in all places where they are found; whereas falts of all kinds, though they have a natural determinate figure, yet are liable to fo many accidents in their concretions, that they are often mutilated, imperfect and conjoined ; three or four of their cryftals often being em- bodied in one regular one. But this is never the cafe in our foffil fhells, or in the parts of animals or plants ; they are always perfect, unlefs by accidents of breaking, as ftones may be bro- ken, always fingle, always alike, even in the minuteft fhapes; and it is evident from a mere infpection of them, that they owe their formation not to a mooting of fome folid body out of a fluid, but to regular organizations of parts and veffels.

7. If thefe ftones were form'd from their feminia received from the fea into the beds where we now find them, fome of them muft be of long ftanding, and others newly form'd there ; and we fhould be able to diftinguifh thefe by the different appear- ances their different ages would give them; but this is by no means the cafe, all that we find feem to be of the fame a^e, and all feem evidently to have been placed at one time, where we find them.

That the foffil fhells are really the fame with the marine fhells aborigine, appears indifputably, from their being perfectly of the fame fhape, even to the moft minute particular. AH the conchitre of the earth agree with the fhells they reprefent at fea not only in their general figure, but even in their num- ber of fpines, in the figure of their mouth, and even in the number and fituation of the tubercles. The fpines of echini, as well as their fhells, perfcdly agree with thofe now living at fea; and there is not any one genus of fea fhells that is not found alfo in fome part or other of the world, and that perfectly agreeing with the recent kind, nay even crabs and lobfters are found foffil, though that but rarely. Thofe foffils which re- prefent the parts of fea fifties, agree alfo as perfectly with the

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fame parts of the living fifhes, as the foffil (hells with the' re- cent ones; and the bufonita: originally called gems, and the glofibpetrae called ferpent's tongues are refered to their proper clafs, by being compared with the teeth of the recent wolf fifti and thefhark, with which they perfeaiyagree ; alfo the corals found on the tops of the higheft mountains, though buried in ftone, yet in all refpedts perfealy refemble the corals at this time growing in the fea.

But if reafon thus proves to us, that the foffils, now abfolutc ftones, only reprefenting the figures of fhells and parts of ani- mals, were once the real thing they reprefent ; our fenfes in other inftances prove to us, that real fea fhells, unqueftionably fuch, at this time are found buried at equal depths m the earth According to the matter fhells have been depofited among in the earth, they are found at this time more or lefs altered • when lodged in ftone they are frequently turned to abfo- lute ftone themfelves, but when bedded in earth, they often are found very little altered from their native ftate. The (hells of this kind not only reprefent the figure of cer- tain fea (hells which we know, but their very fubftance is the fame, and they are form'd of lamina; laid together in the fame manner; and their whole external and internal make is found both by the microfcope and by the naked eye, whoily the fame with that of the fea fhells recent on the fhores. Their fubftance and gravity are the fame, and they anfiver in the fame manner in the feveral chymical trials. An echinites of this fhelly kind being macerated in water, fhews all the re- gular ftruSure of the cortical part of the fame fpecies of echi- nus when recent; and internally all the nice lineaments and traces of the (hell neceifary to the living animal within, are perfect and complete in it.

The oifter (hells found foflil are always compofed of plates or laminae, laid one on another, as in the recent fhells ; and the pinna marina which when recent is of the ftrongeft texture of any (hell in the world, being formed of tranfverfe ftria;, as appears on breaking it, is of the fame texture when foflil. The tubuli niarini have ueen found lollil with the very body of the fifh in them ; and the teeth of (harks lb frequent a- niong lis, under the name of gloflbpetra, are fb far from be- ing native foflils, that they are otten only petrified on the fur- face, their internal part being of the very fame bony ftruflure as in the recent teeth.

The fituation of thefe bodies in the earth, is alfo another great argument of their having been brought thither in their perfedl ftate, as they almoft always lie in a regular horizontal pofition, among the tender kinds particularly, tho' not much altered. The cchinitse, which do not he thus, are u- fually found cruflud and broken. The foffil fhells are alfo ufually found together in great quantities, as it was natural they fhould be, if brought to the places where they now lie by the waters of the deluge, which would naturally roll great numbers of the fame fort of bodies to the fame place; where- as if they were form'd from feminia, they might the more na- turally expefled to be found fingly and difperfed in all places equally ; but neither is this the cafe, fince there aie many large trafls of land wholly without them. Upon the whole, the fafl feems plain, that they are the remains of a deluge, by which every part of the earth was drowned ; and by what we fee of the places where they now lie, it fhould feem that the whole furface was at that time diflblved upon the globe, and that it afterwards fubfided from the waters in form of a (oft mud, which petrified again when the waters went off. As clear as this proof appears on the diluvian fide of the quef- tion, the author, to whom the world is obliged for collect- ing thefe arguments, is not however influenced by them in favour of it, but rather approves the other fyftem of their arifing from feminia. His giving thefe their full force, is a great proof of his integrity as an author; and as the opinion of all the world is for this fide of the queftion now, this may be efteemed the proper account of thefe things. The Author's reafons for judging otherwife, See under the article Eemikium. Langii Hift. Lapid. figurat.

F1LACIUM. See File, Cycl. and Suppl.

F1LAGO, cudweed, in botany, the name of a genus of plants the charaaers of which are thefe. The flower is of the flof- culous kind, and is compofed of feveral (lofcules which are di- vided into many fegments, and formed like a ftarat the ends ■ thefe are placed upon the embryo fruit, and are contained in a general cup, which is of a fcaly or fquamofe ftructure, but is not at all bright or mining.

The fpecies of cudweed enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : I. The common cudweed, called herb impious. 2. The larger cudweed, with longer and narrower leaves. ?. The fmall cudweed. 4. The alpine fmall cudweed, with foli'aceous heads. 5. The fea cudweed, with foliaceous heads. 6. The foliaceous headed fea cudweed, cultivated in gardens, and call- ed the rofe headed cudweed. 7. The Portugal cudweed with foliaceous heads, and 8. The common, fmall erecJ; cudweed, with very narrow leaves.

FILAMENTS, among botanifts. See Stamina.

FILATERIUS, a name given by the writers of the middle ages to a ftone which they have greatly celebrated for its imagina- ry