332 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898 



of fossil vertebrates which could be described in ample detail, 

 without any assumptions based on the theoretical association of 

 fragments. 



Another point worth remembering is this. At the present 

 time all the groups of organisms which are at or near the culmina- 

 tion of their race — are, in fact, dominant types — are represented 

 by numerous genera and almost innumerable species. It is only 

 necessary to think for a moment of such characteristically modern 

 groups as the herring-like fishes, the lizards, the perching birds, and 

 the rats and mice. When, however, we turn to lists of fossils, 

 especially of vertebrate fossils, we note conspicuous poverty in the 

 number of genera and species representing each group even at the 

 period of its maximum development. The reason is not to be 

 sought in the diffidence of palaeontologists to emphasise variations 

 by the multiplication of names : it is solely this, that the geological 

 record preserves only an insignificant proportion of the organisms 

 which have lived even under the most favourable circumstances for 

 burial after death. A. Smith Woodward. 



