1859.] Prof, Huxley on Persistent Types of Animal Life. 151 



Extinct Species. 



Machairodus latidens. 



Lngomys spela-a — Cave Pika. 



Elephas prhnigenius — Mammoth. 



Rhinoceros tichorinus — Tichorine Two- 

 horaed Rhinoceros. 



Equusfossilis — Fossil Horse. 



Equiis plicidens. 



Asinus/ossUis— Fossil Ass or Zebra. 



Hippopotamus Major — Large fossil Hip- 

 popotamus. 



Megaceros Hibernicus — Gigantic Irish 

 Deer. 



Sirongyloceros spelteus — Gigantic round- 

 antlered Deer. 



^Cenms Bucklandi—BvLckXand's Deer. 



Hison minor. 



Bos longifrons — Long-fronted Ox. 



Recent Species. 



Putorius vulgaris — Polecat. 

 Putorius ermineus — Stoat. 

 Canis lupus — Wolf. 

 Vulpes vulgaris — Fox. 

 Fdis ca< ws— Wild Cat. 

 Arvicola amphibia — Water Vole. 

 Arvicola agrestis — Field Vole. 

 Arvicola pratensis — Bank Vole. 

 Lepus variabilis— ^or-way Hare. 

 Lepus cuniculus — Rabbit. 

 Cervus elephas— Red Deer. 

 Cervus tarandiis — Rein Deer. 

 Cervus capreolus — Roe Deer. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, June 3, 1859. 



Sir Henry Holland, Bart. M.D. F.R.S. Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Thomas H. Huxley, Esq. F.R.S. 



OF NATUBAL HISTOEr, GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OP MINES. 



On the Persistent Types of Animal Life. 



The successive modifications which the views of physical geologists 

 have undergone since the infancy of their science, with regard to the 

 amount and the nature of the changes which the crust of the globe has 

 suffered, have all tended in one direction, viz. towards the establishment 

 of the l3elief, that throughout that vast series of ages which was 

 occupied by the deposition of the stratified rocks, and which may be 

 called " geological time," (to distinguish it from the " historical 

 time " which followed, and the " pre-geological time," which pre- 

 ceded it) the intensity and the character of the physical forces which 

 have been in operation, have varied within but narrow limits ; so that, 

 even in Silurian or Cambrian times, the aspect of physical nature must 

 have been much what it is now. 



This uniform itarian view of telluric conditions, so far as geological 

 time is concerned, is, however, perfectly consistent with the notion of a 

 totally different state of things in antecedent epochs, and the strongest 

 advocate of such " physical uniformity " during the time of which we 

 have a record might, with perfect consistency, hold the so-called 

 " nebular hypothesis," or any other view involving the conception of 



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