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No. 1.] ANNUAL ADDRESS. o 



of evolution, and restore our Euglisli science to the domain of 

 common sense and sound induction. Fortunately also, there are 

 workers in this field beyond the limits of the English-speaking- 

 world. As an eminent example, we may refer to Joachim Bar- 

 randc, the illustrious palseontologist of Bohemia, and the greatest 

 authority on the wonderful fauna of his own primordial rocks. 

 In his recent memoir on those ancient and curious crustaceans, 

 the Trilobites, published in advance of the supplement to vol. 

 1st of the Silurian system of Bohemia, he deals a most damaging 

 blow at the theory of evolution, showing conclusively that no 

 sncli progressive development is reconcileable with the facts pre- 

 sented by the primordial fauna. The Trilobites are very well 

 adapted to such an investigation. They constitute a well marked 

 group of animals trenchantly separated from all others. They 

 extend throufih the whole enormous lenirth of the Palaeozoic 

 period, and are represented by numerous genera and species. 

 They ceased altogether at an early period of the earth's geologi- 

 cal history, so that their account with nature has been closed, 

 and we are in a condition to sum it up and strike the balance of 

 profit and loss. Barrande, in an elaborate essay of 282 pages, 

 brings to bear on the history of these creatures, his whole vast 

 stores of information, in a manner most conclusive in its refuta- 

 tion of theories of progressive development. 



It would be impossible here to give an adequate summary of 

 his facts and reasoning. A mere example^ must suffice. In the 

 earlier part of the memoir he takes up the modifications of the 

 head, the thorax and the pygidium or tail piece of the Trilobites 

 in geological time, showing that numerous and remnrkable as 

 these modifications are, in structure, in form and in ornamenta- 

 tion, no law of development can be traced in them. For exam- 

 ple, in the number of segments or joints of the thorax, we find 

 some Trilobites with only one to four segments, others with as 

 many as fourteen to twenty-six, while a great many species have 

 medium or intervening numbers. Now in the early primordial 

 fauna the prevalent Trilobites are at the extremes, some with 

 very few segments, as Agnostus, others with very many, as Para- 

 doxides. The genera with the medium segments are more char- 

 acteristic of the later faunas. There is thus no progression. If 

 the evolutionist holds that the few-jointed forms are embryonic 

 or more like to the young of the others, then on his theory they 

 should have precedence, but they are contemporary with forms 



