The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-11-30 00:00:00

On the let of December will be published, by Geo. B. Whittaker,
Ave Maria-lane, London, in dewy quarto, price Pd. 108.; or,
with proof impressions of the plates on India paper, price 11.10 s.
Part I, of
RE St
the Characters
FmOSSany TniOmSalTsEareoLesOahtrtl which
ose
Species bare been Destroyed by the Revolutions of the Globe.
By the Baron COVIER, &e. &c. Ste.
Translated by EDWARD GRIFFITH, F L.B.
With Dome Additions, and several new Plates, from Drawings
communicated by the Author.

It may, perhaps, be affirmed safely that there is no modem sci-
entifie publication which has raised the present reputation and esta-
blished the future fame of its author so completely, as the celebrated
Work on Fossil Osteology of the Baton Cuvier. It certainly yields
in utility, importance, and skill of execution, to none that the pre.
sent age has produced on any scientific subject ; and ranka, beyond
all comparison, the first on that of which it treats. Fossil Osteology
indeed, as a science, came into existence with the publication of this
book ; for though many valuable abstract accounts of fossil organic
remains had proceeded from the pen of previous naturalists, yet it
must be confessed that their researches were but partial; that they
arrived at no general conclusions, no rational system ; and that
they were deficient in that order, clearness. and comprehensiveness
of detail, so essentially necessary to every scientific result, and so
eminently characteristic of all the labours of Cuvier.
It may perhaps be said that a translation of this Work is need-
less, that It is fitted exclusively for the man of science and the
scholar, to whom an English version is by no means necessary.
But the considerations which have induced a contrary belief are
principally these—that all the sciences in their infancy are necessa-
rily confined to men of study and research ; many of them, as they
advance, assume a more popular character, and among these will in
all probability be included the study of fossil osteology : it requim
no abstruse calculations, and but little preparatory knowledge; it
is abstracted and simple in its nature, and is conhned to facts and
observations. There seems, therefore, to be no bar against its
general introduction as a popular and pleasing pursuit, calculated
to enlarge and correct the notions of every one on the past as well
as the present works and wonders of creation.

An intimate knowledge of the Work in question will necessarily
be co-extensive with the progress of the science to which it is dedi-
cated. The importance of this science, and its growing estimation
among as, are sufficiently evinced by the increasing demand for
this Work In the original French. To meet such a demand, a re-
publication in this country has been thought necessary ; and even
if an English version were not essential, it has been deemed not
merely a partial but a general advantage to present the book to the
English public, clothed in an English dress.

In a Work of so much orim, nality and importance, it would be
injurious to its Illustrious author to make any additions to his text ;
but as the Baron has kindly offered to communicate such new facts
and drawings as may occur to him, pending the progress of this
publication, these will be inserted, both in the text and among the
plates, simply as his own additions. The tranblation of the justly
celebrated Preliminary Discourse, or Theory of the Earth, is from
a new edition, with various alterations and additions, recently pub.
lished in Paris, and politely communicated, while yet in the press,
by the Baron himself.

To those at all acquainted wi:h the subject, it would be super-
fiuous to insist on its importance. The names of Dockland,
Greenough, Jameson, and many others, sufficiently attest the con-
sideration it has lately received among men of science in our own
country. To others, however, in general, who may not yet have
turned their attention to the subject, we would here simply
som ob-
serve, that it Is intimately connected with e of the mostinte-
resting and useful science, and, among these, more especially with
Geology and the History of the Earth, with Zoology and Compa-
rative Anatomy.

Geology, when studied through the medium of fossil organic re-
mains, assumes altogether a new appearance; inattention to these
remains has misled all who have hitherto proposed the several ex.
fisting theories of the earth. It is only by researches into d.-•e
fossils that any thing concerning the antiquity of the earth can he
proved. From the various and distinct genera of animal fossils, to
which alone the present work is confined, found in strata of different
kinds and at different depths, we obtain the M-alts of calculating,
at least to a certain extent, the duration of the globe, and of learn-
ing the various revolutions its surface has undergone, which have
at different and distant periods simultaneously overwhelmed the
whole of enimated nature. On one point, and that of the highest
consequence, a positive result has been obtained—we allude to the
comparative recentness of the earth's surface in its present state, and
the certainty of the last grand catastrophe by which it was over.
whclmed. The Baron clearly proves that on this point Nature and
history speak the same language, and that both corroborate by the
strongest proofs the authority of the sacred volume.
Zoology and Comparative Anatomy are alike illustrated and
Featly enlarged by the Work in question and the science it teaches.
Those laws which are founded on the mutual relation and depend-
ence of parts in every organized body, and which are opposed to all
fallacious stories of monstrous animals handed down to us by ere.
dolmas antiquity, receive additional confirmation front the discovery
of the fossil remains of extinct species. We find from them that
at the remotest periods of time nature has been always governed by
the same general laws, nor could, indeed, ever have produced beings
with a discordance of parts which must have speedily occasioned
heir annihilation.

Results like these mast amply repay every inqubitive mind fet
any reasonable and necessary degree of trouble that may attend the
investigation of the several fae.a on which they are established ;
and if the reader of Curter's Work do not find an equal degree of
interest innery page. or if he tire with minuteness of detail and
particulars of description, let him remember that it is by such mi-
nuteness and particularity, in a great mentor', that these results
are obtained.

The Work will be published Quarterly. in Ten Prate, each to
contain about thirty sheets of letter-press and about durty plates.
Ls will be printed in quarto, to correspond with the quarto edition
of the Animal Kingdom of Curler, now publishing.
London, 1823.