Anniversary of IS^S, Address of the President, 435 



to Fossil Zoology, and especially for his labours employed upon the 

 fossil mammalia collected by Mr. Darwin in the voyage of Captain 

 Fitz Roy. I need not remind you. Gentlemen, how close are the ties 

 which connect the study of living and of fossil animals ; how much 

 light the progress of comparative anatomy throws upon the inter- 

 pretation of geological characters ; and what important steps in our 

 knowledge of the past condition of the earth are restorations of the 

 animal forms which peopled its surface in former times, but have 

 long vanished away. Since the immortal Cuvier breathed into our 

 science a new principle of life, the value of such researches has ever 

 been duly appreciated ; and the award of the WoUaston Medal last year 

 is an evidence how gladly your Council take that method of congra- 

 tulating the successful cultivators of such studies. I am sure that 

 all who are acquainted with Mr. Owen's labours will rejoice that we 

 have in this manner marked our sense of his success. His earlier 

 researches, those for instance on the Nautilus, have been of exceeding 

 use and interest to geologists. And the first part of his description 

 of the fossil mammalia, collected by Mr. Darwin in South America, 

 contains matters of the most striking novelty, interest, and import- 

 ance. We have there the restoration, performed with a consummate 

 skill, such as fitly marks the worthy successor of Hunter and the disciple 

 of Cuvier, of two animals, not only of new genera, but occupying places 

 in the series of animal forms, which are peculiarly instructive. For 

 the one, the Toxodon, connects the Rodentia with the Pachyder- 

 mata by manifest links, and with the Cetacea by more remote resem- 

 blances ; and thus contributes to the completion of the zoological scale 

 just in the parts where it is weakest and most imperfect ; while the 

 other animal, the Macrauchenia, the determination of which is con- 

 sidered by anatomists as an admirable example of the solution of such 

 a problem, appears to be exactly intermediate between the horse and 

 the camel. But this creature is also interesting in another way, since it 

 closely resembles, although on a gigantic scale, an animal still existing 

 in that country and peculiar to it, the Llama. Thus, in this as in some 

 other instances, the types of animal forms which distinguish a certain 

 region on the earth's surface are clearly reflected to our eyes as we 

 gaze into the past ages of the earth's history, while yet they are mag- 

 nified so as to assume what almost appear supernatural dimensions. 

 The Llama, the Capybara, and the Armadillo of South America are 

 seen in colossal forms in the Macrauchenia, the Toxodon, and the Me- 

 gatherium. I will not omit this occasion of stating that the profound 

 and enlarged speculations on the difFusion,preservation, and extinction 

 of races of animals to which Mr. Darwin has been led by the remains 

 which he has brought home, give great additional value to the trea- 

 sures which he has collected, and make it proper to off*er our con- 

 gratulations to him, along with Mr. Owen, on the splendid results 

 to which his expedition has led and is likely to lead. Mr. Owen and 

 Mr. Darwin are engaged in the restoration of other animals from 

 the South American remains in their possession, and I am able to 

 announce that two or three other new genera have already been de- 

 tected. I am sure I am conveying your feeling. Gentlemen, as well 



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