Lect. v.] ungulate lemurs. ] 33 



at tlie clevelopmeDt of tlie Insectivora, and the forms 

 and types immediately Lelow tliem. I confess that 

 but for the enthusiasm with which that paper has 

 inspired me, I should have been afraid to draw such 

 bold conclusions as the author of that paper draws ; yet, 

 in meditating upon the facts that are daily opening up 

 to me in my own especial line of research, the truth of 

 these deductions l)ecomes more and more evident. Now, 

 if these things are true, what is to l^e done with the old 

 Systems ? Where is Linnaeus now ? and where Cuvier ? 

 "Where are your old hard and ftist landmarks — your 

 stony dykes that kept the types apart ? 



If there is any one whose happiness dej^ends upon 

 the safe preservation of these old things, to him I have 

 nought to say ; for myself, that which is found to l)e 

 false I should gladly see cast aside and forgotten. No 

 Zoological System was revealed to the first man who 

 named the cattle, yet, I repeat, liis cattle were similar to 

 ours, and were not the same as those of the early 

 Tertiary period ; in his time there were Swine, Rumi- 

 nants, and Single-hoofed types. Palaeontology has pre- 

 ceded embryology in this field of l)iological research ; 

 in embryology the harvest is great, but the labourers 

 are few. 



The existing Insectivora lay their hands, so to speak, 

 l)oth on the low and on the high ; they are indeed the 

 connectino; links l:)etween the liio;her forms on the 

 one hand, and the low marsupial, and low monotre- 



