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abstract phrases; guesses; conjectures; hypotheses; such 
as those which account for the proportions of the Giraffe ; 
the marvellous ornaments of the birds of Paradise; the 
resemblance (Mimicry) of the Moth (Macroglossa) to the 
Humming bird; soclose that the Indians themselves 
believe in a facile evolution from insect to bird. State- 
ments about which things make us say in the words of 
Froude, “7 have been struck dumb with wonder at the fact- 
lity with which men fill tn chasms tn their infor mation with 
” witness Schmidt’s remark where he doubts 
conjecture. 
the ‘conjecture’ put forward to account for the extinction 
of the ‘Sabre-toothed tiger’ that “a bad hypothests ts better 
than none,’ and claims for his own procedure that a 
“Zoologico-palentological method of investigation and 
drawing conclustons must be granted as a matter of course. 
The Professor treats of a ‘‘ special comparison of the 
living Mammalia and thetr ancestors.” 
In the first group with which the Professor grapples 
it isa matter of regret with him that his organisms appear 
suddenly on the scene, heralded by no transitionary forms. 
‘For instance, the hoofed animals which, when first met with, 
are unfortunately already very marked tn character, possess 
the full number of toes and a good supply of teeth.” 
Surely here, granted a certain adaptive power in- 
herent in some creatures, there is an admission of what 
must have amounted to special creation of the most impor- 
tant group of all. 
But he dare not reject special creation as pos- 
sible in the case of the Monotremata (Anteaters, and 
Platypus), ‘4 separate origin for the Monotreme cannot be 
unconditionally rejected, but ts exceedingly improbable.” 
THE MoNOTREMATOUS IS THE FIRST GRouP taken. 
The strangest of all animal forms in the opinion of Giebel, 
a “man of vast knowledge but opposed to the theory of descent.” 
