EVIDENCE OF DESIGN IN FISHES' TEETH. 81 



in Oxfordsliire, to give his class a word-picture of the 

 conditions of things which (according to the evidence 

 given by the fossil remains of shells, corals, saurians, 

 and fishes) must necessarily have obtained at the bottom 

 of the ancient seas when our world was but a chaos. 

 He has put this idea into the following w^ords, when 

 speaking of the form and structure of the teeth of 

 recent fish as compared with those of their fossil 

 ancestors : — " We thus introduce an additional element 

 into geological calculation. We bring an engine of 

 great power, hitherto unapplied, to bear on the field of 

 our inquiry, and seem almost to add a new sense to our 

 powers of geological perception." 



Ax3ropos to the teeth of fish in general, and especially 

 those of the Bream, I wrote in Land and Water, June 

 19, 1880, as follows : 



"It is among the teeth of animpJs that we find examples 

 of the most beautiful mechanical designs, whether for 

 tearing, crushing, grinding, &c., a subject so eloquently 

 elucidated by the greatest of modern anatomists. Pro- 

 fessor Owen. In fact, so wondrous is the variety of 

 teeth, and so excellent is their adaptation to the work 

 they have to perform, that I think it must puzzle the 

 followers of Darwin's doctrines to account for their 

 beauty of structure as well as the ease and smoothness 

 of their action. 



" Among fishes more especially is the structure of the 

 teeth most noticeable. In fact.^ hardly any fish can be 

 examined without our finding that he carries an arma- 

 ment of teeth either in his jaws or else in his gullet, 

 the structure and working of which are most worthy 

 of the attention of all who are willing to believe what 

 they see, and, above all, recognize creative design in 

 the most humble of beings." 



