7858. SHELLS, Voltaire's errors.—
I
have lately become acquainted with a memoir
on a petrifaction mixed with shells by a Monsieur
de La Sauvagere, giving an exact account
of what Voltaire had erroneously stated in his
questions Encyclopediques, article coquilles,
from whence I had transferred it into my
Notes. Having been lately at Tours, I had an
opportunity of enquiring into de La Sauvagere's
character and the facts he states. The result
was entirely in his and their favor. This fact
is so curious, so circumstantially detailed, and
yet so little like any known operation of nature,
that it throws the mind under absolute suspense.—
To Rev. James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 247.
(P.
1787)
See Deluge.
