1859.] Prof, Owen on Recent and Fossil Mammalia. 109 



Photographic Society — Journal, No. 81. 8vo. 1859. 



Eachmaninow, M. {the Author) — Note Bur la Theorie de la Roue Hydraulique en 



dessous i Aubes Planes. 4to. 1858. 

 Scharfy George^ Esq. («Ac Secretory)— Catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery, 



Jan. 1, 1859. 8vo. 

 TYoining, Miss Elizabeth (the Author) — Illustrations of the Natuial Orders of 



Plants, arranged in Groups; 160 Coloured Plates, with Descriptions. 2 vols. 



fol. 1849-55. 

 Short Lectures on Plants. 12mo. 1858. 

 Yates, James, Esq. F.Ji.S. M.K.l.—liev. J. S. Porter: On the Metrical System 



of Weights and Measures. 8vo. 1859. 



Tuesday, April 12, 1859. 



Conclusion of the Twelfth Lecture of a Course 

 " On Fossil Mammals," 



BY 



Richard Owen, F.R.S. 



FULLEEIAN PBOFE8SOB OF PHYSIOLOGT, BOTAL INSTITUTION, ETC. 



** Summary of the Succession in Time and Geographical Distribution 

 of Recent and Fossil Mammalia. "* 



Having thus recounted the chief steps which have been made in the 

 restoration of the extinct quadrupeds of Australia, I conclude the 

 physiological deductions from this class of organic phenomena, and the 

 selection of topics, which seemed to me to be best adapted for the pre- 

 sent FuUerian course. In the discourse of to-day, as in the preceding 

 one on South American extinct mammals, you could not fail to be 

 struck with the forcible and cumulative evidence which they supplied in 

 proof of the law that with extinct as with existing mammalia, particular 

 forms were assigned to particular provinces, and that the same forms 

 were restricted to the same provinces at a former geological period as 

 they are at the present day. That period, however, was the more recent 

 tertiary one. 



In carrying back the retrospective comparison of existing and 

 extinct mammals to those of the eocene and oolitic strata, in relation to 

 their local distribution, we obtain indications of extensive changes in 

 the relative position of sea and land during those epochs, through the 

 degree of incongruity between the generic forms of the mammalia 

 which then existed in Europe, and any that actually exist on the great 

 natural continent of which Kurope now forms part. It would seem, 

 indeed, that the further we penetrate into time for the recovery of 

 extinct mammalia, the further we must go into space to find their 



♦ Printed by Request. 



