386 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



these ideas were developed by Woodward and others, while J. 

 Gesner introduced into geology the suggestion of great age for 

 the earth by estimating the time required for the elevation of 

 certain fossiliferous strata in the Apennines at 80,000 years. 

 Buffon in France speculated upon the successive emergence and 

 depression of the continents, and Werner in Saxony noted in 

 successive formations the gradual approach of extinct forms of 

 life towards existing forms. 



In the early part of the nineteenth century palaeontology began 

 to take on its modern form. Pallas had, indeed, discovered vast 

 deposits of extinct mammoths and rhinoceroses in Siberia in 

 1768-1774, Blumenbach had distinguished between the fossil 

 mammoth and the living elephant in 1780, and in 1793 the 

 American mastodon was recognized as different from both fossil 

 mammoth and living elephant. In 1793 Lamarck recapitulated 

 and emphasized the methods and results of his predecessors and 

 sought to account for the phenomena, partly by changes in the 

 habits and partly by changes in habitat of extinct forms, modi- 

 fications from whatever source being held to be conserved and 

 accumulated by inheritance, and in 1800 Cuvier published an 

 important paper on fossil and living elephants. Not long after, 

 remains of huge extinct reptiles were discovered : of the ichthyo- 

 saurus and plesiosaurus in 1821 ; of the mososaurus in 1822 ; of 

 fossil crocodiles in France in 1831 ; of the iguanodon in 1848. 

 These "finds" opened up a new world of buried ancient life almost 

 beneath our feet scarcely inferior in interest to the starry world 

 far overhead, which had so long excited the curiosity and won- 

 der of mankind. 



In 1854 in the caves of Belgium were found remains of lions and 

 other animals (including man) which were obviously unlike the 

 same species to-day, and have ever since been spoken of as the 

 "cave" lion, the "cave" tiger, etc. With the human remains 

 were discovered prehistoric implements testifying both to the 

 antiquity of man and to the superiority of the cave men to other 

 cave animals. Fossil ferns and other plants were also found, and 

 even fossil insects, the latter often in a remarkably good state 



