fossil remains were deposited by the Mosaic deluge. We have seen that this view had already been advanced, but it was not till the beginning of the eighteenth century that it became the prevailing view. This doctrine was strongly opposed by some courageous men, and the discussion on the subject soon became even more bitter than the previous one, as to the nature of fossils.
In this diluvial discussion theologians and laymen alike took part. For nearly a century the former had it all their own way, for the general public, then as now, believed what they were taught. Noah's flood was thought to have been universal, and was the only general catastrophe of which the people of that day had any knowledge or conception.
The scholars among them were of course familiar with the accounts of Deucalion and his ark, in a previous deluge, as we are to-day with similar traditions held by various races of men. The firm belief that the earth and all it contains was created in six days; that all life on the globe was destroyed by the deluge, except alone what Noah saved; and that the earth and its inhabitants were to be destroyed by fire, was the foundation on which all knowledge of the earth was based. With such fixed opinions, the fossil remains of animals and plants were naturally regarded as relics left by the flood described in Holy Writ. The dominant nature of this belief is seen in nearly all the literature in regard to fossils published at this time, and some of the works which then appeared have become famous on this account.
In 1710 David Büttner published a volume entitled "Rudera Diluvii Testes." He strongly opposed Lhwyd's explanation of the origin of fossils, and referred these objects directly to the flood. The most renowned work, however, of this time, was published at Zurich in 1726, by Scheuchzer, a physician and naturalist, and professor in the University of Altorf. It bore the title "Homo Diluvii Testis." The specimen upon which this work was based was found at Oeningen, and was regarded as the skeleton of a child destroyed by the deluge. The author recognized in this remarkable fossil, not merely the skeleton, but also portions of the muscles, the liver, and the brain. The same author was fortunate enough to discover, subsequently, near Altorf, two fossil vertebræ, which he at once referred to that "accursed race destroyed by the flood!" These, also, he carefully described and figured in his "Physica Sacra," published at Ulm in 1731. Engravings of both were subsequently given in the "Copper-Bible." Cuvier afterward examined these interesting relics, and pronounced the skeleton of the supposed child to be the remains of a gigantic salamander, and the two vertebræ to be those of an ichthyosaurus!
Another famous book appeared in Germany in the same year in which Scheuchzer's first volume was published. The author was John Bartholomew Adam Beringer, professor at the University of Würz-
