i8 93 . PROFESSOR BLAKE ON AMMONITES. i 45 



from man ; here is a man who is losing his teeth in old age ; he shows 

 how man may have come " almost " from a whale. A fish and a 

 whale are very much alike, " at least, there is little to distinguish them 

 in the outlines " — in another direction, a whale may have developed 

 into a fish. To anyone acquainted with Ammonites, remarks like 

 these are every bit as intelligent as those of Professor Blake ; but 

 while their value can be gauged almost by boys in the schoolroom, 

 the pity of it is that so few people are able to properly appreciate the 

 remarks of the ex-President of the Geologists' Association. 



One last sentence we will notice in this strange address. " The 

 modern genera of Ammonites ... do not range much beyond the 

 ancient idea of species " (p. 38). Certainly, the following does not 

 represent the modern idea of species. " The family of shells allied to 

 this species is so very variable that there is no mean between naming 

 every minute difference . . . and throwing them into groups. I 

 have chosen the latter method, and unite all those which may be 

 called inflated S. commune under the present name, and those that 

 stand in the same relation to S. annulatum under the next. They seem 

 to develope (sic) tubercles indiscriminately . . . , etc." — ("Geology 

 of Yorkshire (Cephalopoda)," p. 300.) 



This, of course, is the ancient idea of species — date, 1874; but 

 the old masters in Science had the merely paltry modern ideas con- 

 cerning species — they actually did not " throw " forms into " groups," 

 vide Sciences more ancient than Palaeontology ; and they took the 

 trouble — even those who dealt with Ammonites — to observe differences 

 in involution, costation, ornamentation, and septal details. It is a 

 pity that they did ; no doubt they would have saved themselves this 

 trouble if they could have foreseen the " ancient idea of species." 



In conclusion, then, we must express our conviction that an 

 efficient paper on the Bases of the Classification of Ammonites 

 yet remains to be written ; and it will not be accomplished by a 

 man who — whatever he may, at one time, have done among Cepha- 

 lopods — has for some considerable time turned his attention to matters 

 entirely different, and yet imagines that with a few weeks' study he 

 can become master of the work of several years. 



