PALAEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 



the species in the order, gave to the world for the first 

 time a common ground for the communication of 

 ideas. Very soon it was found that the distinctions he 

 attempted to establish between species could not be 

 maintained; new animals and plants must be placed 

 in sub-species and new structures and traits demanded 

 constant rearrangement of classification. In the end 

 the close connections and the fluctuating gradations 

 between species became a more prominent idea than 

 their fixity. 



The great work of Linnaeus awakened an enthu- 

 siastic interest in both botany and zoology, and was 

 the beginning of the school of naturalists which at- 

 tained its greatest height in France where Buffon, 

 Cuvier, the two St. Hilaires, Lamarck, Jussieu, and 

 others of less fame advanced the natural sciences by 

 leaps and bounds. In the rapidly growing museums, 

 specimens from all over the world were collected and 

 classified. It was found that nothing was more dif- 

 ficult than to classify the multitude of the earth's in- 

 habitants. So soon as a system was adopted, new dis- 

 coveries would break it down until, in place of fixity 

 of species, there grew up the belief that each species 

 merged into others by imperceptible gradations. 



Attention was also directed to fossils. They, too, 

 were classified and compared with living specimens. 

 As most fossils are the remains of marine animals and 

 as a knowledge of sea forms is the most diflficult to 

 obtain, it is quite natural that the fossils which could 



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