DEFICIENCY OF TRANSITIONAL FORMS. I47 



are in a phase of relative stability. That for this reason 

 their intermediate forms must be looked only for in the 

 past, is as little surprising ; it in no way impugns the 

 truth of the doctrine of Descent ; and the demand for 

 intermediate forms between these local and temporarily 

 stable forms merely proves how little those who make it 

 have appreciated the nature of Descent. 



But the objection mainly concerns those intermediate 

 forms by which the species are connected with the 

 aboriginal species preceding them in order of time. 

 According to the theory, the species now living are 

 connected with the aboriginal species by forms identical 

 in quality with varieties, the " species in process of 

 formation ;" the aboriginal species with others still 

 more ancient, and so on ; so that an infinite number 

 of forms must have existed. We have already shown 

 (p. 97, &c.) that in an excess of zeal palaeontologists have 

 set up species, also to be reckoned by thousands, where 

 merely transitional forms and varieties actually existed ; 

 we have mentioned that a number of distinguished 

 palaeontologists of the present day are endeavouring to 

 remedy the errors of their predecessors, and to exhibit 

 the uninterrupted transitional series from the lower to 

 the more recent strata, where the others with lavish in- 

 genuity imagined they had discerned specific characters. 

 Still it must be admitted that the amount of transitional 

 forms as yet actually found are a vanishing quantity, 

 as compared with the countless multitude which must 

 have existed. 



But this deficiency may be satisfactorily explained. We 

 know only a very small proportion of the fossiliferous 

 strata, and, with as much justice as Lamarck in the be- 



