94 



ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



Part I. 



from expressing my wonder at the puerility of the discussions in which some geol- 

 ogists allow themselves still to indulge, in the face of such a vast amount of well 

 digested facts as our science now possesses. They have hardly yet learned to see 

 that there exists a definite order in the succession of these innumerable extinct 

 beings ; and of the relations of this gradation to the other gi-eat features exhibited 

 by the animal kingdom, of the great fact, that the development of life is the promi- 

 nent trait in the history of our globe,^ they seem either to know nothing, or to 

 look upon it only as a vague speculation, plausible perhaps, but hardly deserving 

 the notice of sober science. 



It is true. Palaeontology as a science is very young; it has had to fight its 

 course through the unrelenting opposition of ignorance and prejudice. What amount 

 of labor and patience it has cost only to establish the fact, that fossils are really 

 the remains of animals and plants that once actually lived upon earth,^ only those 

 know, who are familiar with the history of science. Then it had to be proved, 

 that they are not the wrecks of the Mosaic deluge, which, for a time, was the 

 prevailing opinion, even among scientific men.'^ After Cuvier had shown, beyond 

 question, that they are the remains of animals no longer to be found upon earth, 

 among the living, Palteontology acquired for the first time a solid basis. Yet what 

 an amount of labor it has cost to ascertain, by direct evidence, how these remains 

 are distributed in the sohd crust of our globe, what are the differences they exhibit 

 in successive formations,* what is their geographical distribution, only those can 



(11. G.,) Index palffiontologicus, Stuttgart, 1848-49, 

 3 vols. 8vo. — See also, Keferstein, (Chr.,) Ge- 

 schichte und Literatur der Geognosie, Ilalle, 1840, 

 1 vol. 8vo. — Archiac, (Vic. d',) Histoire des pro- 

 gres de la Geologic, Paris, 1847, et suiv, 4 vols. 

 8vo. ; and the Transactions, Journals, and Proceed- 

 ings of the Geological Society of London, of Paris, 

 of Berlin, of Vienna, etc. ; also, Leonhard and 

 Bronn's Neues Jahrbuch, etc. 



^ Agassiz's Geological Times, etc., q. a., p. 25, 

 note 2. — Dana's Address to the Amer. Ass. for Adv. 

 Sc. 8th Meeting, held at Providence, 1855. 



° Scilla, (Ag.,) La vana speculazione desin- 

 gannata dal senso. Napoli, 1670, 4to. fig. 



' ScHEUCHZER, (J. J.,) Homo Diluvii testis et 

 ■Oeoaaonog, Tiguri, 1726, 4to. — Buckland, (W.,) 

 Reliquiae diluvianae, or Observations on the Organic 

 Remains attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge, 

 London, 1826, 4to. fig. 



* For references respecting the fossils of the 

 oldest geological formations, see the works, quoted 

 above, p. 23, note 1. Also, McCoy, (F.,) Synopsis 

 of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland, Dublin, 1846, 4to. 

 fig. — Geinitz, (H. D.,) Die Versteinerungen der 

 Grauwackenformation, Leipzig, 1850-53, 4to. fig. — 

 And for local information, the geological reports of 

 the different States of the Union, a complete list of 

 which, with a summary of the Geology, may be found 

 in Marcou's (J.,) Resume explicatif d'une carte 

 geologique des Etats-Unis, Bull. Soc. Geol. de 

 France, Paris, 1855, 2de ser. vol. 12. — For the 

 Devonian system : Phillips, (John,) Figures and 

 Descriptions of the Palieozoic Fossils of Cornwall, 

 Devon, and Westsomerset, etc., London, 1841, 8vo. — 

 Archiac, (Vic. d',) and Verneuil, (Ed. de,) Me- 

 moir on the Fossils of the Older Deposits in the 

 Rhenish Provinces, Paris, 1842, 4to. fig. — Sand- 

 BERGER, (G. und Fr.,) Systematische Beschreibung 



