PALAEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 



proposed that God, Himself, while learning the trade 

 of creating, first made models out of earth; those 

 which satisfied Him were changed into living beings 

 and the rest, or sketches, became stony fossils. 



In spite of the growing conviction that fossils were 

 the remains of animals whose cavities had been filled 

 with mud which had in time changed to stone, little 

 progress could be made until they could be compared 

 with living species. As I have noted before, both bi- 

 ology and geology owe their slow development to the 

 lack of collections. The naturalist can do little more 

 than to note the structure and traits of the few speci- 

 mens which come before his own notice until he can 

 compare them with the specimens which others have 

 collected and arranged in museums. 



Men have undoubtedly always collected and re- 

 tained objects which appealed to them as beautiful 

 or curious, but there were no museums in ancient 

 times which corresponded in any sense with our mod- 

 ern ones. Aristotle, for his studies in zoology, made 

 a great collection of specimens and rarities, and his 

 royal patrons placed at his service much money and 

 many collectors. The museum at Alexandria has be- 

 come the symbol of the height of the greatest learning 

 in ancient times, but this museum was really a generic 

 term to include the library and what would now be 

 called a university. According to Mr. Holland, 

 Curator of the Carnegie Museum, even the word, mu- 

 seum, fell into disuse after the destruction of the in- 



C 133 3 



