86 STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



An extinct Animal recognized by its Tooth : how came this to be 

 possible ? The Task of Classification. Artificial and natural 

 Methods. Linnasus, and his Baptism of the Animal Kingdom : 

 his Scheme of Classification. What is there underlying all 

 true Classification ? The chief Groups. What is a Species ? 

 Restatement of the Question respecting the Fixity or Variability 

 of Species. The two Hypotheses. Illustration drawn from the 

 Romance Languages. Caution to Disputants. 



I WAS one day talking with Professor Owen in the 

 Hunterian Museum, when a gentleman approached 

 with a request to be informed respecting the nature 

 of a curious fossil which had been dug up by one 

 of his workmen. As he drew the fossil from a 

 small bag, and was about to hand it for examina- 

 tion, Owen quietly remarked, " That is the third 

 molar of the under jaw of an extinct species of rhi- 

 noceros." The astonishment of the gentleman at 

 this precise and confident description of the fossil, 

 before even it had quitted his hands, was doubtless 

 very great. I know that mine was, until the reflec- 

 tion occurred that if some one, little acquainted with 

 editions, had drawn a volume from his pocket, de- 

 claring he had found it in an old chest, any biblio- 

 phile would have been able to say at a glance, 

 "That is an Elzevir;" or, "That is one of the 

 Tauchnitz classics, stereotyped at Leipzig." Owen 

 is as familiar with the aspect of the teeth of ani- 



