gon NATURAL SCIENCE [November 1898 
of fossil vertebrates which could be described in ample detail, 
without any assumptions based on the theoretical association of 
fragments. 
Another point worth remembering is this. At the present 
time all the groups of organisms which are at or near the culmina- 
tion of their race—are, in fact, dominant types—are represented 
by numerous genera and almost innumerable species. It is only 
necessary to think for a moment of such characteristically modern 
groups as the herring-like fishes, the lizards, the perching birds, and 
the rats and mice. When, however, we turn to lists of fossils, 
especially of vertebrate fossils, we note conspicuous poverty in the 
number of genera and species representing each group even at the 
period of its maximum development. The reason is not to be 
sought in the diffidence of palaeontologists to emphasise variations 
by the multiplication of names: it is solely this, that the geological 
record preserves only an insignificant proportion of the organisms 
which have lived even under the most favourable circumstances for 
burial after death. A, Smrra Woopwarb. 
