X.] GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY. 2(KJ 



First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable 

 of all the results of palaeontology, must be mentioned 

 the immense extension and impulse given to botany, 

 zoology, and comparative anatomy, by the investigation 

 of fossil remains. Indeed, the mass of biological facts 

 has been so greatly increased, and the range of biological 

 speculation has been so vastly widened, by the researches 

 of the geologist and palaeontologist, that it is to be feared 

 there are naturalists in existence who look upon geology 

 as Brindlcy regarded rivers. " Pavers," said the great 

 engineer, "were made to feed canals;* and geology, 

 some seem to think, was solely created to advance com- 

 parative anatomy. 



Were such a thought justifiable, it could hardly expect 

 to be received with favour by this assembly. But it 

 is not justifiable. Your favourite science has her own 

 great aims independent of all others ; and if, notwith- 

 standing her steady devotion to her own progress, she 

 can scatter such rich alms among her sisters, it should 

 be remembered that her charity is of the sort that 

 does not impoverish, but "blesseth him that gives and 

 him that takes." 



Eegard the matter as we will, however, the facts 

 remain. Nearly 40,000 species of animals and plants 

 have been added to the Systema Naturae by paloeonto- 

 logical research. This is a living population equivalent 

 to that of a new continent in mere number ; equivalent 

 to that of a new hemisjDhere, if we take into account the 

 small population of insects as yet found fossil, and the 

 large proportion and peculiar organization of many of 

 the Vertebrata. 



But, beyond this, it is perhaps not too much to say 

 that, except for the necessity of interpreting palceonto- 

 logical facts, the laws of distribution would have received 

 less careful study; while few comparative anatomists 



