Beringer

Cliff Lundberg (cliff@noevalley.com)
Sat, 24 Oct 1998 14:36:45 -0700

Glenn R. Morton wrote:

> Can anyone point me to a good source of information on Johann Beringer,
> the professor in 1726 who published a book about fossils that based upon
> fraudulent data planted by his students?

> What I am interested in in particular is his beliefs about extinction.
> Why did he believe that fossils were inorganic?

I suspect that he didn't believe in extinction at all, and that the
fossils were just musings or false starts by the Creator, rather than
relics of real animals. Ironic that the artificial character of the
prank fossils encouraged the man in this belief.

I'd love to read his book, if it's available, preferably in English.
Not as an example of foolishness, but as an example of a sincere and
enthusiastic student of nature working in an earlier milieu.

-- Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ cliff@noevalley.com