[ 169 ]
LXVIII. The[1] petrified Calamus Indicus alſo, is not very different from this. But theſe are more properly the Subjects of a different ſet of Obſervations.
LXIX. Beſides theſe there are alſo many Kinds of metalline Stones, ſome
- ↑ The petrified Calamus Indicus of the Antients, was one of the ſtarry-ſurfaced foſſile Coralloids; and, indeed, was not named without ſome appearance of Reaſon: The Speci-
can be informed how ſomething of a vegetable or animal Nature can be produced otherwiſe than from Seed or Egg, I may come over to the Doctor's Opinion; that Corals have been formed by mere Appoſition of Particles waſh'd out of the neighbouring Rocks: But till then muſt believe, that no animal or vegetable Matter can be produced otherwiſe than by organized Growth: nor is there now the leaſt Doubt that they are to be ranged in the animal Kingdom. Peyſſonell, Juſſieu, and our own acute and. excellent Ellis, have put, this beyond queſtion.
It is matter of great concern to me, that I am obliged in this, and ſome other parts of this Work, to diſſent from the Opinions of the Author above-mentioned, to whom the World owes more real and everlaſtingly true Diſcoveries in the Hiſtory of Foſſils, than to any one Man beſide who ever wrote; and to whom I am myſelf ſo much indebted: in this very Work: But Truth is to be ſought for at the Expence of the Opinions of all the Writers in the World; and as Dr. Woodward is an Author ſo much and ſo deſervedly eſteemed, where-ever he is in Errors, few would venture to believe him ſo, unleſs convinced of it, either by ocular Demonſtration, or the apparent Teſtimony of the Antients. Where theſe have made againſt him, there, and there alone, I have ventured to diſſent from him: and I cannot but obſerve, that he has, in this Caſe of the Corals, been guilty of that Precipitancy of which he ſo angrily accuſes ſome other excellent Authors: And when he ſo ſeverely cenſured in this matter, in which himſelf was in the wrong, a Gentleman to whom the World is very much indebted in things of this Kind, he ſhould have conſidered that it might be his own Fate to be afterwards treated in the ſame manner; and remembered the excellent Spaniſh Proverb, which adviſes a Man who has Glaſs Windows never to throw Stones.
