136 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



origin and former existence of these objects, and 

 although he defied the learned men of the sixteenth 

 century to disprove his statement, it was not until 

 the end of the seventeenth that his ideas met with 

 a scientific recognition. 



Founded on these now acknowledged facts, many 

 theories, all more or less fanciful, were success- 

 ively adopted, and abounded until the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, when more rational views began 

 to prevail, and the study of fossils to excite that 

 attention which, in the hands of Cuvier, resulted 

 in establishing many of the laws of geology and 

 palaeontology. The bones of the giant teutobochus 

 had been long since recognized as those of elephants; 

 the skeleton of the supposed antediluvian became 

 under the eye of Cuvier that of a gigantic aquatic 

 salamander. The fact of ancient creations of animals, 

 entirely distinct from the present species and long- 

 since exterminated, was set at rest by the comparison 

 of fossil and living animals by Cuvier. 



In his first notes on fossil elephants, in 1800, lie 

 announced his views on extinct animals and commenced 

 a series of observations unparalleled in the annals of 

 science for brilliancy and profound insight into 

 natural laws. With him a bone, or even a portion 

 of one, was sufficient for the restoration of a fossil 

 animal which he had never seen, simply from the 

 principle of the unchangeable relations of organs. 



He made several epochs of creation. The first com- 

 prised the molluscs, fishes, and monstrous reptiles ; 

 the second the anaplotherium and palseotherium, the 



