300 PAL.EOXTOLOGY 



the scaphoid not being confluent with the cuboid ; and the 

 small hoofs have correspondingly small phalanges. The musk- 

 deer, which have long upper canines, have the fibula co-exten- 

 sive with the tibia, whilst the other ruminants have a mere 

 rudiment of fibula articulated to the lower end of the tibia." 

 " There is then a constant harmony between two organs to all 

 appearance quite strangers to each other, and the gradations of 

 their forms correspond uninterruptedly even in the cases where- 

 one can render no reason for such relations." " But in thus 

 availing ourselves of the method of observation as a supple- 

 mentary instrument when theory abandons us, we arrive at 

 astonishing details. The smallest articular surface (facette) 

 of a bone, the smallest process, presents a determinate character 

 relating to the class, to the order, to the genus, and to the 

 species to which they belong ; so that whoever possesses merely 

 the well-preserved extremity of a bone, may, with applica- 

 tion, aided by a little tact (adresse) in discerning analogies, 

 and by sufficient comparison, determine all these things as 

 surely as if he possessed the entire animal."* 



There have been, of course, instances, and will be, where 

 for want of the " efficacious comparison," and the " tact in dis- 

 cerning likeness," such results have not rewarded the endea- 

 vours of the palaeontologist ; and these shortcomings, and the 

 mistakes sometimes made, even by Cuvier himself, have been 

 cast in the teeth of his disciples, as arguments against the 

 principles by which they believed themselves guided in their 

 endeavours to complete the glorious edifice of which their 

 master laid the foundations. 



The writer has, therefore, quoted from the well-known 

 "Preliminary Discourse" to Cuvier's great work on Fossil 

 Remains, with a view to neutralize the efforts of statements 

 reiterated in apparent ignorance of the clear and explicit man- 

 ner in which Cuvier there defines the limits within which the 



* Tom. cit., p. 187. 



