564 Geological Society: Anniversary Address, 1843. 
from their hold, he at length prostrated them by his side, and 
then regaled himself for several days on their choicest leaves and 
branches, which till then had been far beyond reach. After show- 
ing that from the natural inversion of the hind-feet the Mylodon ap- 
proached to the scansorial animals, and thence inferring that it might 
have had climbing powers necessarily much limited by the other 
parts of its frame, Professor Owen states, that the inversion of the 
soles of the feet is least conspicuous in the Megatherium, whose 
bulk and strength would be adequate to the prostration of trees too 
large for the efforts of the Mylodon, Megalonyx and Scelidotherium. 
The Megatherium, in short, was the mighty tree-drawer, and had 
therefore no need of the adventitious aid of any climbing appa- 
ratus. Allow me to add, that, amongst other reasonings, those 
which lead to conclusions that one class of megatherioid animals 
was furnished with a hairy coating (like the Mylodon), whilst 
another, like the great Megatherium, was devoid of it, as evi- 
denced by slight modifications of the bony structure of the hind- 
feet, appear to me to be not the least original and interesting. 
Wholly incapable, as I am, to do justice to this masterly inquiry 
by the necessarily brief allusion which is imposed upon me by the 
nature of this discourse, I shall best execute my task in quoting 
the words with which Professor Owen sums up his reasoning. 
«“ On the Newtonian rule, therefore, this theory has the best claim 
to acceptance ; it is, moreover, strictly in accordance with, as it has 
been suggested by, the ascertained anatomy of the very remarkable 
extinct animals, whose business in a former world it professes to 
explain. And the results of the foregoing examination, comparisons 
and reasonings on the fossils proposed to be described, may be 
summed up as follows. All the characteristics which exist in the 
skeleton of the Mylodon and Megatherium, conduce and concur to 
the production of the forces requisite for uprooting and prostrating 
trees; of which characteristics, if any one were wanting, the effect 
could not be produced: this, therefore, and no other mode of ob- 
taining food, is the condition of the sum of such characteristics, and 
of the concourse of so great forces in one and the same animal.” 
This, Gentlemen, is the true Cuvierian style, in which, as in num- 
berless parts of his works, Professor Owen has continued to breathe 
out the very spirit of the founder of palzontological science. 
It is by such labours that geology is steadily gaining a higher 
plave among the sciences. Comparative anatomy has truly been 
our steadiest auxiliary, and well may we do honour to those 
who impart to us such truthful records; for, whilst the histories of 
the earlier beings of our own race are shrouded in obscurity, whilst 
the first chronicles of ancient Rome and Greece are now admitted 
to be exaggerated, and often even fabulous, we turn back the leaves 
of far more antique lore; and, not trusting to perishing inscriptions, 
mutilated by successive conquerors, and assuming a hundred meanings 
under the eyes of doubting antiquaries, we appeal only to the proofs 
in nature’s book, and find that their reading is pregnant with evidences 
which must be true, because they are founded on unerring general laws. 
