 However, he maintained that a certain 'materia pinguis' or 'fatty matter,' set into fermentation by heat, gave birth to fossil organic shapes, as opposed to fossil shells having belonged to living animals.In 1546, he published the four volumes of "De natura eorum quae effluunt e terra" (The nature of the things that flow out of the earth's interior).It deals with the properties of water, its effects, taste, smell, temperature etc.