primogenius

Updated: May 24, 2025

Its great features would undoubtedly be the works of man hewn stones, and statues of bronze and marble, and tools of iron and human remains would be more common than those of animals on the greatest part of the surface; the columns of Paestum or of Agrigentum, or the immense iron and granite bridges of the Thames, would offer a striking contrast to the bones of the crocodiles or sauri in the older rocks, or even to those of the mammoth or elephas primogenius in the diluvial strata.

Sir Humphry Davy - Consolations in Travel: or, the Last Days of a Philosopher