446 Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 



the Earth, that palaeontological geology presents some resem- 

 blance to the history of the generality of mankind, that is to 

 say, that it must go through mythological and heroic periods 

 before it reach what can be truly called the historical. Palaeon- 

 tology has unquestionably been in the last-mentioned condi- 

 tion for nearly a century. At the same time it is not to be 

 denied that,*even in recent times, works on palaeontology have 

 been too often executed under the influence of a fanciful illu- 

 sion, which rendered it difficult to discern the truth, even 

 though the processes of demonstration appeared exact and al- 

 most mathematical. It ought not, therefore, to be surprising 

 that we still find a certain number of geologists who, influ- 

 enced by a respectful confidence for observers, rather than 

 guided by a profound and personal examination of their ob • 

 serrations, admit and propagate, in whole or in part, infe- 

 rences evidently false, yet which necessarily flow from the 

 premises obtained by this mode of procedure. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, it was for a long while difficult to avoid the belief that 

 fossil animals were found in Europe which did not exist in a 

 living state any where but in South America ; and yet all the 

 facts, as they came successively to be more carefully exa- 

 mined, were opposed to this opinion ; and the recent disco- 

 veries of MM. Clausen and Lund in the caverns of Brazil tend 

 likewise to confirm, in relation to the fossil bones of the two 

 continents, the observation of Buffon, that the living species 

 are never the same in both, with the exception of the more 

 northern parts. 



"At the same time," adds the reporter, " amidst this distract- 

 ing diversity of opinion, a few liberal minds, keeping free from 

 fanciful or interested impressions, which are unhappily too 

 common for the real advancement of the sciences, have begun 

 to reconsider the grounds on which a very considerable num- 

 ber of assertions regarding palaeontology, have been made to 

 rest. Admitting less than ever that a single part of a skele- 

 ton, even though selected with that view, can enable one to 

 reconstruct the whole, that the dental system is in necessary 

 accordance with the digital system, or with any other portion 

 of the skeleton, that a single tooth is enough to establish a 

 genus, or that size alone can characterize species ; they have 

 introduced into the distinctive attributes the age, sex, and 



