ioo LIFE OF FLOWER 



perfection of the state of our palaeontological (I must 

 use the objectionable word) knowledge at the date 

 when much of his best work was accomplished. At 

 that time, in spite of the enormous and valuable results 

 achieved by Cuvier, Owen, and others, mammalian 

 palaeontology may be said to have been in its infancy 

 compared to its present state ; the wonderful discoveries 

 in North and South America being then either unknown 

 or only partially revealed, and the same being the case 

 with regard to those made known by the working of 

 the phosphorite beds in Central France. 



These and other discoveries have, for instance, totally 

 revolutionised our ideas with regard to the affinities 

 of the different families of the modern Carnivora, and 

 have thus led to considerable modifications of the views 

 entertained by Flower as to the relationships of the 

 members of this group. 



Moreover, there is another important factor which has 

 to be taken into consideration. At the time when Sir 

 William wrote his celebrated memoir on the Carnivora, 

 the effects of what is now universally known among 

 zoologists as " parallelism in development " were quite 

 unrecognised. By " parallelism " (to abbreviate the 

 expression) is meant, it may be explained, a remarkable 

 tendency which undoubtedly exists among animals of 

 markedly diverse origin to become more or less like 

 one another in at least one important structural feature, 

 when living under similar physical conditions, or specially 

 adapted for similar modes of existence. Not unfre- 

 quently this structural resemblance, when closely ex- 

 amined, is found to be less close than might at first sight 

 have seemed to be the case ; the adaptation having been 



