PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 373 



accumulated. The time was ripe. Many naturalists were working at 

 the problem, convinced that evolution was the key to the present and 

 the past. But how had Nature brought this change about ? While 

 others pondered, Darwin spoke the magic words — " natural selection^''' 

 and a new epoch in science began. 



The fourth period in the history of paleontology dates from this 

 time, and is the period of to-day. One of the main characteristics of 

 this epoch is the belief that all life, living and extinct, has been evolved 

 from simple forms. Another prominent feature is the accepted fact 

 of the great antiquity of the human race. These are quite sufficient to 

 distinguish this period sharply from those that preceded it. 



The publication of Charles Darwin's work on the " Origin of Spe- 

 cies," November, 1859, at once aroused attention, and started a revo- 

 lution which has already in the short space of two decades changed 

 the whole course of scientific thought. The theory of " natural selec- 

 tion," or, as Spencer has happily termed it, the " survival of the 

 fittest," had been worked out independently by Wallace, who justly 

 shares the honor of the discovery. We have seen that the theory of 

 evolution was pi'oposed and advocated by Lamarck, but he was before 

 his time. The anonymous author of the " Vestiges of Creation," which 

 appeared in 18^4, advocated a somewhat similar theory, which attracted 

 much attention, but the belief that species were immutable was not 

 sensibly affected until Darwin's work apj^eai'ed. 



The difference between Lamarck and Darwin is essentially this : 

 Lamarck proposed the theory of evolution ; Darwin changed this into 

 a doctrine, which is now guiding the investigations in all departments 

 of biology. Lamarck failed to realize the importance of time, and the 

 interaction of life on life. Darwin, by combining these influences with 

 those also suggested by Lamarck, has shown hoio the existing forms 

 on the earth may have been derived from those of the past. 



This revolution has influenced paleontology as extensively as any 

 other department of science, and hence the new period we are discuss- 

 ing. In the last epoch, species were represented independently, by 

 parallel lines ; in the present period, they are indicated by dependent, 

 branching lines. The former was the analytic, the latter is the syn- 

 thetic period. To-day, the animals and plants now living are believed 

 to be genetically connected with those of the distant past ; and the 

 paleontologist no longer deems species of the first importance, but 

 seeks for relationships and genealogies, connecting the past with the 

 present. Working in this spirit, and with such a method, the advance 

 during the last decade has been great, and is an earnest of w^hat is yet 

 to come. 



The progress of paleontology in Great Britain during the present 

 period has been great, and the general interest in the science much 

 extended. The views of Darwin soon found acceptance here. Next 



