PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 233 



ing souls, will it be quenched by the dense mists of ignorance around 

 it. Scarcely less fatal to the growth of science is the age of Author- 

 ity, as the past proves too well. With freedom of thought came 

 definite knowledge and certain progress ; but two thousand years was 

 long to wait. 



With the opening of the present century began a new era in pale- 

 ontology, which we may here distinguish as the third period in its his- 

 tory. This branch of knowledge became now a science. Method re- 

 placed disorder, and systematic study superseded casual observation. 

 For the next half century the advance was continuous and rapid. 

 One characteristic of this period was, the accurate determination of 

 fossils by comparison with living forms. This will separate it from 

 the two former epochs. Another distinctive feature of this period 

 was the general belief that every species, recent and extinct, icas a 

 se2yarate creation. 



At the very beginning of the epoch we are now to consider, three 

 names stand out in bold relief — Cuvier, Lamarck, and William Smith. 

 To these men the science of paleontology owes its origin. Cuvier 

 and Lamarck, in France, had all the power which great talent, educa- 

 tion, and station could give ; William Smith, an English surveyor, 

 was without culture or influence. The last years of the eighteenth 

 century had been spent by each of these men in preparation for his 

 chosen work, and the results were now given to the world. Cuvier laid 

 the foundation of the paleontology of vertebrate animals ; Lamarck, 

 of the invertebrates ; and Smith established the principles of strati- 

 graphical paleontology. The investigator of fossils to-day seldom needs 

 to consult earlier authors of the science. 



George Cuvier (1769-1832), the most famous naturalist of his time, 

 was led to the study of extinct animals by ascertaining that the re- 

 mains of fossil elephants which he examined were extinct species. 

 "This idea," he says later, "which I announced to the Institute in 

 the month of January, 179G, opened to me views entirely new respect- 

 ing the theory of the earth, and determined me to devote myself to 

 the long researches and to the assiduous labors which have now occu- 

 pied me for twenty-five years." * 



It is interesting to note here that in this first investigation of fossil 

 vertebrates, Cuvier employed the same method that gave him such 

 important results in his later researches. Remains of elephants had 

 been known to Europe for centuries, and many authors, from Pliny 

 down to the contemporaries of Cuvier, had written- about them. Some 

 had regarded the bones as those of human giants, and those who 

 recognized what they were considered them remains of the elephants 

 imported by Hannibal or the Romans. Cuvier, however, compared the 

 fossils directly with the bones of existing elephants, and proved them 

 * " Ossemens Fossiles," second edition, vol. i., p. 1V8. 



