has been operated upon by a deluge. The latter assumes that the earth was
75,000 years in cooling to its present temperature, and that, in 98,000
years more, productive nature must be finally extinguished.

Woodward considered there was a temporary dissolution of the elements of
the globe, during which period the extraneous fossils became incorporated
with the general mass.

De Luc, Dolomieu, and, finally Baron Cuvier, unite in the opinion, that
the phenomena exhibited by the earth, particularly the alternate deposits
of terrestrial and marine productions, can only be satisfactorily
accounted for by a series of revolutions similar to the deluge.

Among the singular views entertained by men of genius, in the infancy of
the science, are those of Whiston, "who fancied that the earth was
created from the atmosphere of one comet, and deluged by the tail of
another;" and that, for their sins, the antediluvian population were
drowned; "except the fishes, whose passions were less violent."

A French geologist conceived that the sea covered the earth for a vast
period; that all animals were originally inhabitants of the water; that
their habits gradually changed on the retiring of the waves, and "that
man himself began his career as a fish!"--_Mag. Nat. Hist._

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