1 1 4 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. IV. 



todon, and of otlier Edentates, Avill Ije f<jund in the Osteological 

 Catalogue of the ]\Iuseuni of tlic Roj'al College of Surgeons, England, 

 1845. 



We owe two of the most valuable and beautifully illustrated 

 memoirs of the gigantic fossil Sloths to the late Professor J. Rein- 

 hardt— (1) On Coelodon (Copenhagen, 1878), and (2) On Grypto- 

 therium darwinii (Copenhagen, 1879). 



Since the delivery of this lecture, my time, for several months, 

 lias been mainly spent at the study of this same group — the Eden- 

 tata. I confess that this later work has greatly intensified my con- 

 victions as to the soundness of the fomidations on which we, as 

 Darwinians, are building ; if we are patient, the mists in which 

 we have worked, in this the morning of our labours, will, I am 

 satisfied, all vanish, after a time. 



Moreover, after a while, wars will cease ; now, each man whilst 

 building on the wall has also to be girded with his weapon ; with 

 one hand he builds the wall, and with the other he holds his weapon 

 of defence; this is a great hindrance to the work. 



The example of our great leader, our most trustworthy Darwin, 

 Avas perfect whilst he was yet with us. His deeds, if not his words, 

 when tempted to hold parley with his enemies, said — " I am doing 

 a great work, so that I cannot come down." 



When this part of the work is done, — when the Edentata are 

 worked out, — and worked into their own side of the great wall, then 

 I feel certain that those who afterwards look at the bulwarks, and 

 tell the toAvers of the building, Avill be struck Avith the strength 

 and the beauty of that part ; it Avill stand out to the eye like a fine 

 flying buttress. 



I cannot, here, go into details as to the structure and structural 

 relations of the types that yet remain to lis of this Order, or of their 

 relation to the gigantic, recently extinct, forms. 



If no fossil remains of Edentata had been found, then any 

 speculation upon the forefathers of such strange creatures might 

 have seemed unscientific and useless, showing rather the self- 

 confidence of the speculator than the value of his thinkings and 

 imaginations. 



Here, hoAvever, Xaturc herself leads us on, and bids us not fear 

 nor be faintdiearted. Time, in his hurry to garner the last great 



