Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/158

 154 surface remains almost the same, as if they had been circular. Had a large expansion of intestines been superadded to the enormous stomach and lungs of the Ichthyosaurus. the consequent enlargement of the body would have diminished the power of progressive motion, to the great detriment of an animal which depended on its speed for the capture of its prey.

The above facts which we have elicited from the coprolitic remains of the Ichthyosauri, afford a new and curious contribution to our knowledge both of the anatomy and habits of the extinct inhabitants of our planet. We have found evidence which enables us to point out the existence of beneficial arrangements and compensations, even in those perishable, yet important parts which formed their organs of digestion. We have ascertained the nature of their food, and the form and structure of their intestinal canal; and have traced the digestive organs through three distinct stages of descent, from a large and long stomach, through the spiral coils of a compressed ileum, to their termination in a cloaca; from which the Coprolites descended into the mud of the nascent lias. In this lias they have been interred during countless ages, until summoned from its deep recesses by the labours of the Geologist, to give evidence of events that passed at the bottom of the ancient seas, in ages long preceding the existence of man.

Discoveries have recently been made of Coprolites derived from fossil fishes. Mr. Mantell has found them within the body of the Macropoma Mantellii, from the chalk of Lewes, placed in contact with the long stomach of this voracious fish: the coats of its stomach are also well preserved. Miss Anning also has discovered them within