i8: 



THE MUSEUM. 



The absence of fossil remains in this 

 age may be accounted for in two ways; 

 either the animal life was made up of 

 soft and perishable matter without 

 shells or hard skeletal parts — as is 

 most usually the case in lowest forms 

 of life — or else by a change in the rock 

 state in which they were deposited, 

 caused by the joint action of pressure 

 and heat, and known as metamorph- 

 ism, every trace of the original form 

 of life was lost, nothing left but a 

 residue as explained above. 



Tracing the geological record on 

 after this Azoic age, the proofs of in- 

 creasing life on earth becomes more 

 evident. 



It is not proposed in this article to 

 enter into any detailed account of the 

 particular kinds of animals and plants 

 that successively occupied the earth as 

 age after age passed away. The kind 

 of life was always suited to the con- 

 ditions of its existence, and these con- 

 ditions ever varying reacted so as to 

 change the forms of life. It amounts 

 to this: — there has always been sus- 

 ceptibility in animals and plants to ex- 

 ternal influences, which renders them 

 liable to continual change, to be in 

 unison with the environments. 



The outer configuration, and the in- 

 ner composition of the earth has al- 

 ways been changing, and the summa- 

 tion of these changes, in both respects, 

 causes modification in form, and in- 

 crease in numbers in life correspond- 

 ing to the changes. Each separate 

 form affected, at the same time, con- 

 ditioned many others reciprocally op- 

 posed in the struggle for existence, and 

 every possibility of a new form became 

 a reality. From the homogeneous, or 

 oneness in structure, to the heterogen- 

 eous, or diversity in structure has been 



the law of development for the earth 

 itself, and all that it contains. Great 

 simplicity in structure was characteris- 

 tic of the first forms of life, in the old- 

 est geological ages. A tool invented 

 to do almost any kind of work may be 

 made of almost any shape, and hence 

 there was great indeliniteness in shape, 

 as every part of the body did almost 

 every kind of work necessary for the 

 creature's life. Sometimes there was 

 no stomach to digest with. The food 

 was simply enfolded in the jelly mess 

 and absorbed into its being: — No heart 

 to propel, or vessels to convey a circu- 

 lation, but the nutrient fluid -permeat- 

 ed the body by the physical law of 

 transfusion: — No brain or special 

 nerve center, but sensation to some 

 impressions, and perception, was scat- 

 tered intimately through every particle 

 of the body. Then, as other condi- 

 tions are to be met, life advanced in 

 complexity to meet these new condi- 

 tions. 



If new enemies are to be met, shells 

 for protection, or horns or some means 

 of defense were forthcoming to meet 

 the exigences of the case. This di- 

 versity in structure, has given rise to 

 classification in science, and this im- 

 plies degree in rank. But why are 

 some animals reckoned higher in the 

 scale of being than others.'' 



A few points on this subject will be 

 noted. First, under any circumstances 

 water animals may be considered in- 

 ferior to land animals. And, as in the 

 early ages of the world, the ocean was 

 much more extended and even univer- 

 sal, and the land much less in area, 

 and even nothing, it follows of course 

 that in the aggregate life was of infer- 

 ior type. Want of symmetry is a 

 mark of inferiority. 



