of Natural H'lstory to Geolo(]y and the Arts. 215 



For the geologist has been taught, by his own experience, that with- 

 out an investigation of the hf'e- manifestations at successive epochs 

 his science is fragmentary and incomplete. But the mere describing 

 and cataloguing, the casting of them in established zoological and 

 botanical moulds, is as likely to mislead us as to help. Such a pro- 

 cess has misled. Half the sins of premature speculation, so often 

 called up, like tilmy ghosts, to frighten incipient geologists from the 

 beautiful science they would follow — the charges of crudeness, has- 

 tiness, vagueness, inconsistency, and inaccuracy, brought against 

 geology — have arisen from this mode of attempting to misconduct 

 scientific inquiry. The geologist collected fossils without sufficient 

 notes, and without a notion of their zoological or botanical value ; 

 ho transmitted them to the zoologist or botanist, who examined them 

 without caring to know whence they came, under what conditions 

 tliey were found, or who were their associates. It was like the 

 author mentioned by the novelist, who, when called upon for an ar- 

 ticle on Chinese metaphysics read up China on the one. hand and 

 Metaphysics on the other, and combined his heterogeneous knowledge 

 in a wordy and well-sounding but empty disquisition. The time for 

 such manner of work is going — has gone. The naturalist who exa- 

 mines fossils, if he would understand them, must study and practi- 

 cally acquaint himself with the principles and facts of geology. The 

 naturalist who studies living beings, if he seek to grasp the philo- 

 sophy of his science, must work among the remains of extinct crea- 

 tures also. Geology must become an element of his studies. There 

 was a time — not very long ago — there may be a i^^i holders by it 

 yet — when it was supposed that to be a zoologist a knowledge of 

 comparative anatomy was superfluous ; that to be a botanist no ac- 

 quaintance with vegetable physiology was required. That day is 

 gone, or expiring. The man who would now maintain such a state 

 of things to be science is listened to with a smile, not argued with; 

 and so will it be with all who pretend to investigate the phenomena 

 of distribution, and the laws which determine the limits of genera 

 and species, without a knowledge of geology. 



On the principle that there is no palaeontology without natural 

 history, that there is no natural history without geology, the rela- 

 tions of living to extinct forms have been borne in mind in all the 

 arrangements of this Museum, and in all the duties of those to whom 

 the charge of the fossil collections, made by the Geological Survey, 

 has been assigned. Moreover, in order to carry out this view to its 

 fullest extent, the officers of the palseontological department are 

 required to take the field when investigations demand their presence, 

 and to study the occurrence of organic remains in the rock, as well 

 as in the cabinet. To do this they must necessarily make them- 

 selves familiar with the practice of geological research. They must 

 learn to appreciate the exact bearing of physical and mineral con- 

 ditions on organic remains. Such, too, is clearly the method by 



