20 Development of Animality. 



brian, silurian, devonian, coal, permian creations, &c., ad 

 assemblages of organized beings equivalent to the whole liv- 

 ing beings now on the surface of the globe, or as geological 

 epochs which, from their importance, admit of comparison 

 with that to which we belong, and which goes back to the 

 establishment of the order of things which prevails on the 

 earth in our own day. Indeed, I have no doubt that the 

 truth of what I now affirm will, in a few years, be generally 

 admitted, and that the greater part of the subdivisions of our 

 present classification of geological formations, will be regard- 

 ed as independent formations, and the fossils which they 

 contain as representatives of distinct creations. To be con- 

 vinced of this, we have only to follow the progress of the 

 most recent discoveries in palaeontology. I need only refer 

 to the works which have been published within the last fif- 

 teen years. The examination of genera, in countries the 

 most remote, confirms these anticipations. I require no other 

 proof than the beautiful discoveries of M. Lund respecting 

 the fossil bones of Brazil, and the no less important researches 

 of Messrs Falconer and Cautley on those of the sub-Hima- 

 layan hills. Everywhere, in the end, we discover, within 

 very restricted vertical and horizontal limits, assemblages of 

 fossil species as considerable as those with which we become 

 acquainted by the study of the richest living faunas within 

 similar geographical limits. 



The study of the fishes of the old red sandstone, will fur- 

 nish, I hope, a new argument in favour of the theory I advo- 

 cate. 



In order to point out more distinctly the ichthyological 

 characters of the epoch during which these formations were 

 deposited, it will not be superfluous to pass rapidly in review 

 the phases of development in the principal types of animality 

 at the principal epochs of their metamorphoses, and then 

 shew in what manner these types were combined in the se- 

 ries of time. This will be the best introduction to the ge- 

 netic study of the affinities of the presently existing fami- 

 lies of the animal kingdom. Not wishing to bring forward 

 a complete system in this place, I shall confine myself to 

 laying before the reader the immediate consequences of the 



