in the Reconstruction of extinct Vertebrate Forms. 477 



from one who is at the same time a Professor of Physiology, and 

 an officer on the palseontological staff of the Museum of Econo- 

 mic Geology, — as to require some notice. 



The temptations of a popular lecture are notoriously so great, 

 to produce effect instead of merely giving instruction, and to 

 heighten sober fact with a little gilding, that a considerable 

 allowance is usually extended to discourses addressed to large 

 mixed audiences. If the banquet is plain, to go down well, it 

 requires some strong seasoning. But there is a limit to this 

 kind of consideration; and when a man of science, of recognized 

 standing, assails generally admitted principles and established 

 reputations, in a discourse of this nature, which comes before the 

 world in the permanent form of publication, it is no longer en- 

 titled to indulgence, but becomes a fair subject of legitimate 

 criticism. 



Nearly three-fourths of Mr. Huxley^s abstract are devoted to 

 the first head, viz. Natural History regarded as knowledge, the 

 leading feature of which is an attempt to refute the principle 

 propounded by Cuvier, that the laws of correlation which pre- 

 side over the organization of animals, guided him in his recon- 

 struction of extinct forms. It is to this part of the lecture that 

 the remarks now offered have reference. 



By the common verdict of mankind, George Cuvier has been 

 considered one of the most successful investigators of natural 

 knowledge, in all time. His principal claim for this rank rests 

 upon his having been the founder and architect of philosophical 

 palaeontology. He not only laid the first stone, but he con- 

 structed, and covered over, the edifice. What has been accom- 

 plished by his successors, has been merely to fill up, and embel- 

 lish the details of the interior ; this much he left to them as an 

 express legacy. The general results of his researches, and the 

 principles upon which they were conducted, were set forth in 

 the " Discours preliminaire,'^ which, taking due account of the 

 state of knowledge at the time, and the wide scope of the argu- 

 ment, has hitherto been held up as a model of exhaustive philo- 

 sophical inquiry, conveyed in a strain of chastened didactic 

 eloquence, such as has not yet been surpassed in the literature 

 of natural history. 



That in some important respects Cuvier was behind the pro- 

 gress of zoological science in his day, is undeniable ; as also that 

 he arrived at some wrong palseontological conclusions. This is 

 not to be wondered at ; the real marvel being, that in achieving 

 so much in a new field, he erred so little. But Mr. Huxley 

 assails him on very different and much higher grounds. " The 

 prince of modern naturalists,^' it is alleged, " did not himself 

 understand the methods by which he arrived at his great re- 



