[84] Part ii. chap. 9.
[85] Giornale del Criselini, 1759.
[86] See a sketch of the History of English Geology, by Dr. Fitton, in Edinb. Rev. Feb. 1818, re-edited Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag. vols. i. and ii. 1832-3. Some of Michell's observations anticipate in so remarkable a manner the theories established forty years afterwards, that his writings would probably have formed an era in the science, if his researches had been uninterrupted. He held, however, his professorship only eight years, when his career was suddenly cut short by preferment to a benefice. From that time he appears to have been engaged in his clerical duties, and to have entirely discontinued his scientific pursuits, exemplifying the working of a system still in force at Oxford and Cambridge, where the chairs of mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, and others, being frequently filled by clergymen, the reward of success disqualifies them, if they conscientiously discharge their new duties, from farther advancing the cause of science, and that, too, at the moment when their labors would naturally bear the richest fruits.
[87] Sui Corpi Marini del Feltrino, 1761.
[88] De Novis e Mari Natis Insulis. Raspe was also the editor of the "Philosophical Works of Leibnitz. Amst. et Leipzig, 1765;" also author of "Tassie's Gems," and "Baron Munchausen's Travels."
[89] Acta Academiæ Electoralis Maguntinæ, vol. ii. Erfurt.
[90] This account of Fuchsel is derived from an excellent analysis of his memoirs by M. Keferstein. Journ. de Géologie, tom. ii. Oct. 1830.
[91] Saggio orittografico, &c. 1780, and other Works.
[92] Lett. sui Pesci Fossili di Bolca. Milan, 1793.
[93] This argument of Testa has been strengthened of late years by the discovery that dealers in shells had long been in the habit of selling Mediterranean species as shells of more southern and distant latitudes, for the sake of enhancing their price. It appears, moreover, from several hundred experiments made by that distinguished hydrographer, Capt. Smith, on the water within eight fathoms of the surface, that the temperature of the Mediterranean is on an average 3½° of Fahrenheit higher than the western part of the Atlantic ocean; an important fact, which in some degree may help to explain why many species are common to tropical latitudes and to the Mediterranean.