Cuvier's History of The Natural Sciences - 10. The Beginnings of Paleontology - Publications Scientifiques Du Muséum

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The Beginnings of Paleontology - Publications scientifiques du Muséum
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Cuvier’s History of the Natural Sciences | Georges Cuvier
10. The Beginnings

of Paleontology
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11/7/23, 3:27 PM Cuvier’s History of the Natural Sciences - 10. The Beginnings of Paleontology - Publications scientifiques du Muséum
Chœtodon chirurgus. Engraving from Giovanni Volta’s

Ittiolitologia veronese del Museo Bozziano… (1796) Cliché
Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN.
1 Messieurs,
2 As announced in the last session, we will focus today on fossils.
The word “fossil” has a specific meaning in French. In most
other languages and according to its etymology, it includes all
substances extracted from the earth by burrowing. Among

French scholars, it only applies to bodies found in the ground
that belonged to organized animals or plants and not
necessarily altered in composition. The word petrification is
used for these bodies when their intimate nature was
completely modified and they have the composition of a
mineral.
3 A third class includes bodies with the external shape of organic
fragments but the inside texture of a mineral. They result from
the substitution of molecules of another nature submitted to
other laws to molecules of an organic fragment. The latter
served as a mold for the former and disappeared but the new
molecules did not take the position of the ones they replaced.
These products are called pseudomorphs.1 The name that
nature’s whim has given to mineral masses with a shape
similar and purely accidental to organized beings or parts of
beings.
4 Mineralogists from the first half of the eighteenth century far
from clearly distinguished between the four classes I just
mentioned. Some did not even make any distinction among
them and assumed that natural forces inducing the formation
of organs in living beings could do the same inside the earth
and unify stone elements in identical forms. Those who
recognized organic fragments in fossils explained their
presence in mineral rocks from the universal deluge. This is
more correct than the first opinion but still far from the truth:
the universal deluge was a temporary event and does not
explain the presence of countless shells and other organic
substances riddling some species of rocks at different
elevations. Among the authors convinced that fossils were the
results of occult forces of nature, we will mention a physician
from Lucerne, Langius (Nicolaus).2 He had printed in 1708 in
Venice a history of the stones of Switzerland.3 In 1709, he
published in Lucerne another work titled Tractatus de origine
figuratorum.4 Both works are valuable for the accompanying
figures but they contain odd mistakes: for instance, man-made
flint fragments, supposedly used by ancient Germans on their

arrows before iron, are presented as fish tongues; horse teeth
are described as hippopotamus teeth. All errors are due to the
ignorance of comparative anatomy.
5 The same could almost be said about David Sigismund
Büttner5 who adopted the opposite opinion. His book Rudera
diluvii testes printed in Leipzig in 17106 contains an entire
system on the deluge, the potential causes of this revolution,
and the resulting effects. The most valuable plates in the book
represent fishes, reptiles, and fossils in some regions of
Germany. Like Lang, Büttner often confuses nature’s whims
and organic fragments. He mistook stones resembling human
or horse heads for petrifications of such species. Several
Germans also published works on figured stones. We will
mention the three Baiers. The first one, Johann Wilhelm
Baier,7 was born in Jena in 1675 and taught theology in Altorf.
In 1712, he presented a book called Fossilia diluvii universalis
monumenta.8 The second Baier, Johann Jakob,9 was born in
Jena in 1677 and died in 1735. He was also a professor in
Altorf. One of his works was printed in 1708 with the title
Oryctographia norica, with a supplement that was not
published until 1730.10 Finally, Ferdinand Jakob Baier11
produced in 1757 a posthumous work of his father Johann
Jakob: Monumenta rerum petrificatarum praecipua.12 All
these works are remarkable for their numerous organic
figures.
6 Scheuchzer (Johann Jakob) whom we met under geogony,13
published in 1708 a work on the same subject, very particular
in the way he exposed the facts: Piscium querelae et
vindiciae.14 The author used prosopopoeia:15 he made petrified
fishes speak to complain about being the victims of the
universal deluge even if they were innocent of the crime that
motivated it. Fishes were also made to complain about the
injustice of man, who does not recognize them as the ancestors
of present-day fishes, belittling them to the category of crude
stones.
7 Like others I mentioned, this work has only the merit of its
plates, representing very beautiful ichthyolites.16 Four sites,
out of which Scheuchzer only knew three, are known in Europe
to contain these organic fragments in abundance: 1) the copper
mines of Thuringia where you can find, compressed between
strips of black slates, some fishes of species and genera that do
not exist anymore today;17 2) an extension of the Jura, near
Eichstedt, under the Pappenheim County, where a
considerable number of perfectly preserved fishes and other
marine animal skeletons are found in white marls; 3) Mount
Bolca, near Verona, with a large part of its layers containing
very large fishes, perfectly preserved but almost all unknown;
and 4) a small Swabian village named Öhningen, near Lake
Constance, with marly schist containing freshwater fish
skeletons, in great quantity and perfectly preserved. The latter
fossils are extensively found in cabinets of curiosity, and they
were best described by Scheuchzer. The figures appeared for
the first time in his Piscium querelae.
8 Scheuchzer published under the title Homo diluvii testis et
theoscopos18 a dissertation on a fossil with a head as big as a
child’s, two large cavities like eye sockets, and a partial
backbone. While he was a physician, and therefore an
anatomist, Scheuchzer thought the fossil was a fragment of a
human skeleton even if its aspect was enough to conclude that
these bones never belonged to our species. After Scheuchzer,
naturalists recognized his error; some claimed the skeleton
belonged to a fish, others that it was a mammal, but generally
it was still thought to be an anthropomorphite until I
recognized recently that it was a gigantic salamander, which
no longer exists. I did a prior drawing of the potential figure of
this animal. Once removed from the rock, the parts previously
hidden were exactly as I drew them. Since then, two other
complete salamanders were found and they are exactly the
same as the first one. Baier19 made an error similar to
Scheuchzer’s by mistaking ichthyosaur20 vertebrae for human
vertebrae.21
9 The question of human fossils was not considered at the time.

It was only been quite recently that the idea emerged and that
it was recognized that regular mountain layers or ancient
earths containing many shells, and often fishes and mammals,
have never embedded human skeletons that date from their
formation. Human bones are not even found in crevices of
mountains such as in Gibraltar, Cette,22 and the French inland,
which filled with matter fallen from above or calcareous
drippings, even if they contain many mammal fragments.
When some were found, it was only on the upper part of the
crevice but never completely embedded in the paste joining the
two walls. As for human bones found on soft ground or alluvia,
the facts are simple. We can therefore assure that the human
species was only present on the globe, or at least on the parts
now discovered, long after the species that do not exist
anymore, and only, even if the proofs are less tangible, at the
same time as the current animals, following several
disruptions of the Earth’s surface.
10 Scheuchzer also focused on fossil plants and was the first to
present good illustrations in a work titled Herbarium
diluvianum, printed in Leiden in 1709.23 It argued that fossil
plants, like animal fragments, all belong to completely extinct
species and to species foreign to our climate.
11 Since Scheuchzer, the knowledge of fossil plants has greatly
advanced thanks to the works of Adolphe Brongniart24 and
other modern authors, but the true origin of this science dates
back to Scheuchzer. The Berlin professor published a third
work titled Museum diluvianum printed in Zürich in 1716,25 a
mere catalog of the fossil collections he constituted. At about
the same time, other works on the same subject were
published but do not deserve a special analysis. We have to
mention the thesis defended in Würzburg by a student, George
Ludwig Hueber,26 composed by his professor Bartholomew
Beringer.27 It included some figures that do not represent
shells but pseudomorphs, not even nature’s whims but men-
made stones representing not only parts of organized beings
but comets, stars, Hebrew letters, figures of Christ, and

domestic utensils. These objects were made and sent to the
unfortunate professor to fool him. He received so many and
triggered general laughter that he ended up understanding
that he was being teased. He attempted to remove all copies of
his student’s thesis, who was as gullible as he was to the point
of defending it, but there was still enough for the mischief of
his enemies and the credulity of the friends of the
supernatural.
12 I will only mention the titles and authors of other works on
fossils as they do not contain anything new and are only
valuable for some of their figures: Amoenitates Hassiae
inferioris subterraneae and Historia naturalis Hassiae
inferioris are works by Wohlfahrt, a professor in Hanau;28
Discursus de Diluvio universo by J. Georg Liebknecht, a
professor in Giessen.29
13 The best memoir on fossils, even if it was limited, was by
Antoine de Jussieu: Recherches physiques sur les
pétrifications de plantes et d’animaux étrangers que l’on
trouve en France.30 This essay was presented at the Academy
in 1715. Until then, the denomination of fossils was limited to
an examination of the main similarities with natural objects.
Antoine de Jussieu brought more accuracy and scope and
discovered that ferns embedded in cooper schist near Lyon
were closer to tree ferns brought back by Father Plumier31
from America than to current ferns in France. He had the same
success with animal fragments and recognized hippopotamus
teeth in fossil bones. As comparative anatomy was not very
advanced, he did not realize that the hippopotamus existing
today is from a species different from the fossil hippopotamus
of which many fragments are found in Tuscany. Therefore, he
speculated a lot to explain how this animal was transported to
our regions. Its presence is the result of causes more powerful
than transportation.
14 At the end of our period of interest, various authors
summarized the different works we discussed. One of the most
renowned was Dezallier d’Argenville,32 a judge at the Court of

Finances. In 1755, he published an Orictologie33 with many
illustrations, one representing a remarkably large, fossil,
human head found near Reims. This head was presumably a
vestige and evidence of a race of giants that had completely
disappeared. Careful examination of this head, which remains
today in Mr. de Jussieu’s collection,34 revealed that its
excessive volume is the result of bone hypertrophy that caused
the obliteration and constriction of the openings towards the
blood vessels and brain extensions. The individual must have
endured horrendous suffering before his inevitable death. The
teeth showed that it was a child. In fact, it is at this stage that
this type of cruel disease affecting head bones is likely. A
similar head was found in an ossuary at Munster, now in Mr.
Sömmerring’s cabinet,35 with characteristics showing that it
also belonged to a child. It is therefore certain that these heads
do not attest to the existence of a race of giants, now extinct.
However, for love of the supernatural and due to the slow
dissemination of scientific progress, these heads are still
mentioned in some recent publications, as in the time of
D’Argenville.
15 Around the same time as the publication of the work I just
mentioned, Klein’s Sciagraphia lithologica curiosa,36 a
supplement to Scheuchzer’s works,37 L. Bourguet’s Traité des
pétrifications,38 dedicated to Réaumur39 in 1742, and J.
Gessner’s Tractatus physicus de petrificatis40 were also
published. The latter attempted to explain the formation of
petrifications, a phenomenon still unexplained today. For
pseudomorphs, it is already difficult to understand how the
core shell could disappear from an entirely closed cavity. Did a
liquid dissolve it? If so, why wasn’t the rock mold, also
calcareous, dissolved or at least significantly altered by the
solvent? As I said earlier, the challenge must still be overcome.
In this case, it was not a homogenous substance that was
deposited in the mold; it is the object itself that was
reproduced with other elements in all its details. When sawing
a piece of petrified wood, you can see the beams from the
center to the circumference, the circular fibers intersecting
with those beams, and the vessels, no matter how fine. Each
part still has different colors. In one word, the plant is
reproduced in its smallest details. It is assumed that the
mineral substance replaced the plant matter in the exact same
layout but we do not know how, under which law or influence.
16 I will end the history of mineralogy in the first half of the
eighteenth century with the most complete work on
petrifications, Georg Wolfgang Knorr’s Lapides diluvii testes,
published in installments between 1755 and 1772.41 Knorr was
an engraver and a painter in Nuremberg and only the
illustrations are from him. The text is from a professor at Jena,
Immanuel Walch.42 He had an extensive erudition on
mineralogy as he mentioned all authors preceding him.
17 Messieurs, we will now present the history of organized beings
in the first half of the eighteenth century. The history can be
general or specific. We will start with the general history of
physiology.
18 Etymologically, physiology means the science of nature. For
the Ancient Greeks, it often meant the science of nature in
general or physics. In our contemporary Europe, it only refers
to the science of organized beings considered in relationship
with life. The word life is vague and can have several meanings
and I will define it. Some metaphysicians infer the idea of life
from the identity of existence and activity. Others, like the
philosophers of nature, consider that life is the entire motion
of the universe. They recognize a global life, out of which each
being comes and which absorbs it at the end of its existence.
Each and every one of us for example is a phenomenon of
universal life in the same way that the internal and external
phenomena of our body belong to our specific life. Nothing can
be defined when relating our existence to a global life. While
we understand the relationships between our small bodily
phenomena and ourselves, the link between our individual
existence and a global life is only an abstraction. Therefore, we
will not retain the definition of life as an expression of

universal life. We will examine the life in each being
specifically; we will look for the underlying circumstances and
arrangements, the resulting successive or simultaneous
phenomena, and the causes of such phenomena.
19 Because it is getting late, this issue will be addressed in the
next session.
Notes
1. Petrifications are also pseudomorphs because their inorganic matter
component usually has a different shape. [M. de St.-Agy]
2. [Carl Nicolaus Lang, Langius, or Caroli Nicolai Langii (born 18 February
1670, Lucerne; died 2 May 1741, Lucerne), a Swiss physician and naturalist,
known for his large and varied collection of petrifications and for his many
published works on minerals and fossils.]
3. [Historia lapidum figuratorum Helvetiae, ejusque viciniae: in quânon
solùm enarrantur omnia eorum genera, species et vires aeneisque tabulis
repraesentantur, sed insuper adducuntur eorum loca nativa, in quibus
reperiri solent, ut cuilibet facile sit eos colligere, modo adducta loca adire
libeat, Venice: Jacobi Tomasini, 1708, [30] + 165 p. + 53 pls, in-quarto.]
4. [Tractatus de origine lapidum figuratorum in quo diffuse disseritur,
utrum nimirum sint corpora marina a diluvio ad montes translata, &
tractu temporis petrificata vel an a seminio quodam e materia
lapidescente intra terram generentur, quibus accedit accurata diluvii,
Lucerne: Annae Felicitatis Hautt, 1709, [7] + 80 p., in-quarto.]
5. [David Sigismund Büttner (born 30 August 1660, Lichtenstein; died 25
September 1719, Querfurt, Germany), a German Protestant clergyman,
geologist and paleontologist, who interpreted fossils as remains of marine
animals victimized and transported to unlikely places by the Biblical Flood.
He maintained a large collection of petrifications and attempted to equate
presentday marine organisms with their fossilized counterparts.]
6. [Rudera diluvii testes, Zeichen und Zeugen der Sündfluth, in Ansehung
des itzigen Zustandes unserer Erd-und Wasser-Kugel, insonderheit der
darinnen vielfältig auch zeither in Querfurtischen Revier unterschiedlich
angetroffenen, ehemahls verschwemten Thiere und Gewächse, Leipzig:
Johann Friedrich Braunen, 1710, viii + 314 + 20 p. + 31 pls.]
7. [Johann Wilhelm Baier (born 12 June 1675, Jena; died 11 May 1729,
Altdorf), brother of Johann Jakob Baier (see note 8, below) and not to be
confused with his father of the same name (Lutheran theologian, born 11
November 1647, Nuremberg; died 19 October 1695, Jena), a German

professor of Lutheran theology, physics, and mathematics at the University
of Altdorf, whose scientific work combined theology with current
knowledge of nature. Like many other scientists of his day, he interpreted
the fossil record as evidence of the Biblical Flood.]
8. [Fossilia diluvii universalis monumenta, Altdorf: Danielis Meyeri, 1712,
[1] + 34 p., in-quarto.]
9. [Johann Jakob Baier (born 14 June 1677, Jena; died 14 July 1735,
Altdorf), a German physician and geologist, brother of Johann Wilhelm
Baier (see note 7, above), whose reputation rests on his studies of minerals
and fossils, which contributed much to disprove the idea that fossils were a
mere sport of nature. By providing exact descriptions and good illustration
he helped to lay the foundations of scientific paleontology.]
10. [Oryctographia norica sive rerum fossilium et ad minerale regnum
pertinentium in territorio noribergensi eiusque vicinia observatarum
succincta description, Nuremberg: Wolfgangi Michahellis, 1708, [10] + 102
p. + 6 pls. (Sciagraphia musei sui accedunt supplementa Oryctographiae
noricae, Nuremberg: haeredes Wolfgangi Mauritii Endteri & Julius
Arnoldus Engelbrechti viduam, 1730, ccxxx p.)]
11. [Ferdinand Jakob Baier (born 13 February 1707, Altdorf; died 23
October 1788, Ansbach), a German physician, son of Johann Jakob Baier
(see note 9, above).]
12. [Monumenta rerum petrificatarum praecipua oryctographiae noricae
supplementi loco iungenda, edita per filium, Nuremberg: Georgii
Lichtenstegeri, 1757, [2] + 20 p. + 15 pls.]
13. [Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, see Lesson 4, note 23.]
14. [Piscium querelae et vindiciae, Zürich: Gessnerianis, 1708, 36 p. + 5
pls.]
15. [Prosopopoeia, a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer
communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object. The
term literally derives from the Greek roots prósopon, meaning “face” or
“person,” and poiéin, “to make” or “to do.”]
16. [Ichthyolites are fish fossils.]
17. At least, the same ones have not yet been found. [M. de St.-Agy]
18. [Homo diluvii testis et theoscopos, Zürich: Johann Henrici Byrgklini,
1726, 24 p.]
19. [Johann Jakob Baier, see note 9, above.]
20. [Ichthyosaurs, extinct marine reptiles, belonging to the order
Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia, that thrived during much of the Mesozoic
era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 250 million
years ago and at least one species survived until about 90 million years ago,
into the Late Cretaceous. During the early Triassic Period, ichthyosaurs
evolved from a group of unidentified land reptiles that returned to the sea,
in a development parallel to that of the ancestors of modern-day dolphins
and whales, which they gradually came to resemble.]
21. [Baier (see note 9, above), in his Oryctographia norica of 1708 (see
note 10, above), correctly identified the fossils in question as vertebrae, but
he insisted they belonged to a human victim of the Flood.]
22. [Cette-Eygun is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in
south-western France.]
23. [Herbarium diluvianum collectum, Zürich: Davidis Gessneri, 1709, 44
p. + 10 pls, ills, in-folio; a second edition was published in Leiden (Petri
Vander Aa, 1723, [6] + 123 p. + 14 pls, ills, 1 port., in-folio).]
24. [Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart (born 14 January 1801, Paris; died 18
February 1876, Paris), a French botanist whose pioneering work on the
relationships between extinct and existing plants earned him the title of
Father of Paleobotany. His major contribution on plant fossils is titled
Histoire des végétaux fossiles, ou, Recherches botaniques et géologiques
sur les végétaux renfermés dans les diverses couches du globe (Paris: E. J.
Bailly), an unfinished work, originally planned to be published in 24 parts,
but only 15 parts were printed, between 1828 and 1837, the last ending
abruptly in the middle of a sentence.]
25. [Museum Diluvianum quod possidet, Tiguri [Zürich]: Typis Henrici
Bodmeri, 1716, [12] + 107 + [5] p. + [1] leaf of pls, ill., in-8°.]
26. [George Ludwig Hueber, student and collaborator of Johann
Bartholomeus Beringer (see note 27, below) in producing Lithographiae
Wirceburgensis, ducentis lapidum figuratorum, a potiori insectiformium,
prodigiosis imaginibus exornatae specimen primum, quod in
dissertatione inaugurali physico-historica, cum annexis corollariis
medicis, authoritate et consensu inclytae facultatis medicae, in alma Eoo-
Francica wirceburgensium universitate, Würzburg: Prostat Wirceburgi,
apud Philippum Wilhelmum Fuggart, 1726, [12] + 137 p. + 21 pls.]
27. [Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer (born 1667, died 1740), a
German physician and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of
Würzburg who described pieces of limestone (that came to be called
Beringer’s Lying Stones), formed in the shape of various animals, such as
birds, lizards, frogs, and spiders on their webs, claiming them to be fossils.
Because some of them also bore the name of God in Hebrew, he thought
they might be of divine origin, calling them “capricious fabrications of
God.” In fact, he was the victim of a cruel hoax, perpetrated on him by his
colleagues. Upon discovering the truth, Beringer took his hoaxers to court,
and the scandal that followed left all three of them in disgrace. Some of the
stones are now on display at the Oxford University Museum, and Teylers
Museum in the Netherlands.]
28. [Peter Wohlfahrt or Wolfart (born 11 July 1675, Hanau; died 3
December 1726, Cassell), a German physician and academician, author of
Amoenitates Hassiae inferioris subterraneae (Cassell: Johann Henrich
Herbst, 1711) and Historia naturalis Hassiae inferioris (Cassell: Henrich
Harmes, 1719, 52 p. + 25 pls.)]
29. [Johann Georg Liebknecht (born 23 April 1679, Wasungen, Thuringia;
died 17 September 1749, Giessen), a German theologian and naturalist,
professor of mathematics and theology at the Ludoviciana University in
Giessen, Germany, and author of Discursus de diluvio maximo occasione
inventi nuper in comitatu laubacensi et ex mira metamorphosi in
mineram ferri mutati ligni, cum observationibus geodaeticis,
aeroscopicis, hydrographicis et aliis, Giessae; Francofurti: J. O. Meyeri &
J. T. Nockeri, 1714, [3] + 374 p.]
30. [Antoine de Jussieu (born 6 July 1686, Lyon; died 22 April 1758, Paris),
a French physician and naturalist, not to be confused with his better-
known nephew, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (born 12 April 1748, Lyon; died
17 September 1836), or with his brother, Bernard de Jussieu (born 17
August 1699, Lyon; died 6 November 1777, Paris), author of “Recherches
physiques sur les pétrifications qui se trouvent en France de diverses
parties des plantes et d’animaux étrangers”, Mémoires de l’Académie des
Sciences de Paris, 1721, pp. 69-75.]
31. [Charles Plumier, see Volume 2, Lesson 8, note 83.].
32. [Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville (born 1 July 1680, Paris; died
29 November 1765, Paris), not to be confused with his architect son,
Antoine-Nicolas Dezallier d’Argenville (born 27 August 1723, Paris; died 26
September 1796, Paris), was a French avocat to the Parlement de Paris and
secretary to the king —a connoisseur of gardening, with an interest in
natural history that resulted in several treatises on shells, minerals, and
fossils.]
33. [L’histoire naturelle éclaircie dans une de ses parties principales,
l’oryctologie: qui traite des terres, des pierres, des métaux, des minéraux,
et autres fossiles: ouvrage dans lequel on trouve un nouvelle méthode
latine & françoise de les diviser, & une notice critique des principaux
ouvrages qui ont paru sur ces matières, Paris: De Bure l’Aîné, 1755, [23] +
560 + [2] p.]
34. [Antoine de Jussieu, see note 30, above.]
35. [Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, see Volume 2, Lesson 14, note 98.]
36. [Jacob Theodor Klein (born 15 August 1685, Gdañsk, Poland; died 27
February 1759, Königsberg, Prussia), a German jurist, historian, botanist,
zoologist, mathematician, and diplomat, who in natural history dealt with
matters of zoological nomenclature and set up his own system of
classification of animals, which was based on the number, shape, and
position of the limbs. He is the author of Sciagraphia lithologica curiosa,
seu, Lapidum figuratorum nomenclator, Gdañsk: Thomae Johannis
Schreiberi, 1740, 77 p.]
37. [Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, see Lesson 4, note 23.]
38. [Louis Bourguet (see Lesson 4, note 26, above), author of Traité des
pétrifications, Paris: Briasson, 1742, xvi + 91 + [3] p. + 60 pls.]
39. [René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, see Volume 2, Lesson 16, note
31.]
40. [Johannes Gessner (born 18 March 1709, Zürich; died 6 May 1790,
Zürich), a Swiss mathematician, physicist, botanist, mineralogist and
physician, and the author of Tractatus physicus de petrificatis, in duas
partes distinctus, quarum prior agit de petrificatorum differentiis &
eorum varia origine, Leiden: Theodorum Haak, 1758, 137 p.]
41. [Georg Wolfgang Knorr (see Volume 2, Lesson 8, note 53), author (with
Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch; see note 42, below) of Lapides ex
celeberrimorum virorum sententia diluvii universalis testes, quos in
ordines ac species distribuit, suis coloribus expremit, Nuremberg: Gustav
Philipp Jakob Bieling, published in installments between 1755 and 1773
and later bound in 4 folio vols., with 272 pls.]
42. [Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch (born 29 August 1725, Jena; died 1
December 1778, Jena), a German theologian, linguist, and naturalist who
over his life time produced more than 80 publications on various topics in
the humanities and about 50 publications in natural history, particularly on
geology and fossils, perhaps the most significant being the beautifully
illustrated, four-volume Die Naturgeschichte der Versteinerungen zur
Erläuterung der Knorrischen Sammlung von Merckwürdigkeiten der
Natur herausgegeben (Nuremberg: Felsecker, 1768-1773, a German edition
of Lapides diluvii universalis testes, which he continued after Knorr’s
death in 1761 (see note 41, above). A comprehensive chapter on trilobites in
1771 contains the first use of the word “trilobite” and predates other equally
comprehensive treatments by 50 years.]
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CUVIER, Georges. 10. The Beginnings of Paleontology In: Cuvier’s History
of the Natural Sciences: Twenty lessons from the first half of the
Eighteenth Century [online]. Paris: Publications scientifiques du Muséum,
2018 (generated 07 novembre 2023). Available on the Internet:
<http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/3525>. ISBN: 9782856538791. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4000/books.mnhn.3525.
Electronic reference of the book

CUVIER, Georges. Cuvier’s History of the Natural Sciences: Twenty
lessons from the first half of the Eighteenth Century. New edition [online].
Paris: Publications scientifiques du Muséum, 2018 (generated 07 novembre
2023). Available on the Internet:
<http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/3420>. ISBN: 9782856538791.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.mnhn.3420.
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11/7/23, 3:27 PM Cuvier’s History of the Natural Sciences - 10.

The Beginnings of Paleontology - Publications scientifiques du Muséum

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10. The Beginnings

Chœtodon chirurgus. Engraving from Giovanni Volta’s

substances extracted from the earth by burrowing. Among

flint fragments, supposedly used by ancient Germans on their

9 The question of human fossils was not considered at the time.

but comets, stars, Hebrew letters, figures of Christ, and

renowned was Dezallier d’Argenville,32 a judge at the Court of

will not retain the definition of life as an expression of

November 1647, Nuremberg; died 19 October 1695, Jena), a German

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