It is on this very
simple principle, and not upon imaginary laws of
physiological correlation, about which, in most cases, we know
nothing whatever, that the so-called restorations of the
palaeontologist are based.
Abundant illustrations of this truth will occur to every one who
is familiar with palaeontology; none is more suitable than the
case of the so-called
Belemnites. In the early days of
the study of fossils, this name was given to certain elongated
stony bodies, ending at one extremity in a conical point, and
truncated at the other, which were commonly reputed to be
thunderbolts, and as such to have descended from the sky.
They are common enough in some parts of England; and, in the
condition in which they are ordinarily found, it might be
difficult to give satisfactory reasons for denying them to be
merely mineral bodies.
They appear, in fact, to consist of nothing but concentric
layers of carbonate of lime, disposed in subcrystalline fibres,
or prisms, perpendicular to the layers. Among a great number of
specimens of these Belemnites, however, it was soon observed
that some showed a conical cavity at the blunt end; and, in
still better preserved specimens, this cavity appeared to be
divided into chambers by delicate saucer-shaped partitions,
situated at regular intervals one above the other.
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