PALEOLITHIC 



PALEONTOLOGY 



707 



double bar in i. denoting a double omission. Shil- 

 lings and pence, now expressed by s. and d. , were for- 

 merly denoted by s and <t, abbreviations for solitli 

 and denarii. The sign S for dollars is said to be the 

 ligature Ml, the i' being merely S, a cursive Dutch 

 form of d (but see DOLLAR). The circumflex (~) 

 which was a cursive m was not always written hori- 

 zontally. We see this in the common sign ?/ used for 

 rum, as suo^i for stiorum, or ivo^r for servorum. Here 

 1 is the ligature of a and u, which is crossed by m 

 in the cursive form ( ~ ) or ( - ) written vertically. 

 For et there are numerous signs, all of which resolve 

 themselves into ligatures. Some of them, such as 

 A, &, and <, require no explanation. They are 

 found in &iS for etiam, and in the various forms 

 \ - <'&era, or &c&fa, or &cet. or &c, or finally &c. 

 which we now use for et cetera. The sign 7 , used 

 in Domesday for et, is also a ligature, as is shown 

 by the older forms e l and t l. The sign <-r. or -=- for 

 eft is also a ligature, the upper dot standing for e, the 

 bar or circumflex for the long s ( J ), and the lower 

 dot for t. In like manner ease is written'? 5 ', the 

 two dots each representing e, and the two circum- 

 flexes being each a long *. This became = and 

 then = , whence we obtain = s for esses, = t for 

 esset, and = mg for essemiis. 



Many similar contractions were also used, most 

 of which can be easily resolved into ligatures. A 

 few of the more common are p for pro, p for per and 

 par, and p and p for prte, q for qmim, <j for quod, 

 14 for qui, z for tz, fr for frater, t for vel, t for ser 

 and si. Thus we have suyius and snjiiy for 

 titjieriiu, ppe for props, p for proximits, genW for 

 generosi, ass- for (issisa, fie torjitz. 



BIBLIOGHAPHY. The study of Palaeography requires 

 either an ample purse or access to a good library, the 

 needful works being mostly bulky and costly. The best 

 books of moderate price for the beginner in Greek Palaeo- 

 graphy are Wattenbach's Anlcilang zur Qriechuehm 

 PaldiHjraphie and Kchrift-tafdn, and Gardthausen's 

 Griechiiche falaofirapkie. For Latin Palaeography 

 it would be well to begin with Wattenhach's 

 Anteitung, and Arndt's Schrift-tafeln. For Mediaeval 

 Paleography, Chassant's Puleoiiraphie des Charles et des 

 Jfantucrit, with his companjon volume, Dirtinnnnirf 

 de Abriviationt du Moyen Aiie, are extremely useful 

 little hooks. Prou's Manuel de Pale&iraphie may also 

 be consulted. For English Charters, the student, await- 

 ing Mr Maunde Thompson's long-promised work, has 

 had to fall hack upon Wright's Court-Hand Restored, 

 published in 1773, and the article 'Records' in Savage's 

 Dictionary of Printing. The evolution of the forms of 

 letters is traced in Dr Taylors book on The Alphabet. 

 Subsidiary matters, such as writing materials, gatherings, 

 lineation, punctuation, &c., which are useful in determin- 

 ing the age of MSS., are discussed in the works of Prou 

 and Gardthauscn already mentioned, and also in Watten- 

 bach's Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, and Leist's Urkunden- 

 lehre. Of the more costly works, far the most important 

 are the autotype fac-similes published by the l';tl ru- 

 graphical Society, with Zangemeister's Kxxmpia Coflicum 

 Latin/rum, Wattenhach'a Exempla 1,'odicnm (rracorum, 

 *n \ his Scriptures Vr(ec<e Specimina. ForMSS.in England, 

 the fac-similes of National MSS., of Anglo-Saxon MSS., 

 of ancient charters, and of ancient MSS. in the British 

 Museum must be consulted ; for German MSS., Sybel's 

 Works and Sickel's Monumenla Gmphica ; for Russian, 

 Sabas' Specimina Palteoyraphia ; for Italian, the Archivio 

 palenr/rajico Italiano ; tor Spanish, the Exnn/>la Xcrip- 

 tura Vuvjoticft ; for French, the Notice* et Kxtraitt det 

 M'lnutcritu, and the valuable publications of Delisle and 

 Letronne. Among the older works the most important 

 are Walther's Lexicon IHplomutinim, Wadly's El'-mentt 

 de Pattographie, Astle's Origin and Protjress of Writint/, 

 Silvestre's Paltoyraphie Unirerirlle, Montfaucon's Palceo- 

 graphia Grrtra, Mabillon's De fit Diplomatica, and the 

 Benedictine Nouveau TraiU de Diplomatique, 



Palaeolithic. See ARCHEOLOGY, FLINT IM- 



PLKMESTS, (STONE AGE ; also MAN. 



l*al;i'>l onus, the name of an illustrious Byzan- 

 tine family, which first appears in history about 



the 1 1th century, and attained to imperial dignity 

 in the person of Michael VIII. in 1260 (see BYZAN- 

 TINE EMPIRE). The last of the dynasty, Constan- 

 tine XL, fell bravely fighting at the siege of 

 Constantinople. His brothers were princes of the 

 Morea and of Achaia respectively ; a daughter of 

 one of them married Ivan III. of Russia. A branch 

 of the family ruled Montferrat from 1306 to 1533. 



Pala*ontology (Or., 'study of ancient life'), 

 the science or study of fossil organic remains 

 whether of animal or plant life. The study of 

 fossil animals is sometimes termed palaeozoology, 

 and that of fossil plants pala-ophytology. The aim 

 of pala'ontology is to attain a knowledge of all 

 the various plants and animals which have suc- 

 cessively appeared and disappeared in the course 

 of geological ages. But as the geological record 

 is highly imperfect, and myriads of species must 

 have lived and died without leaving any trace 

 behind them, it is obvious tlhit our knowledge, no 

 matter how enlarged it may become, can never 

 possibly be complete. The history is full of gaps, 

 some of which may eventually be bridged over, but, 

 however that may be, it is nevertheless certain 

 that our knowledge must always bear but a small 

 proportion to our ignorance. Nevertheless, the 

 study of palaeontology has been fruitful in results. 

 It has greatly influenced zoology and botany and 

 that not merely by adding to the number of sub- 

 jects with whicli tliose sciences deal, but especially 

 by the light which it has thrown on the evolution 

 and mutual relations of existing forms of life. 

 Fossil organic remains consist chiefly of the harder 

 parts such as bones, scales, teeth, shells, crusts, 

 spines, &c. of animals, and the ligneous tissues of 

 plants (see FOSSILS). In attempting to interpret 

 the evidence supplied by such remains, palaeontolo- 

 gists were early led to study, for purposes of com- 

 parison, the structures of existing plants and 

 animals. By applying the results of these com- 

 parisons to the restoration of extinct forms of life, 

 Cuvier was enabled to establish the law of the 

 ' correlation of organs ; ' and thus the paleontologist, 

 who has to deal principally with fragmentary 

 remains, is not in such a helpless case as might have 

 Ijeen supposed. ' Stated in its most general form, 

 the law of the correlation of organs is the law that 

 all the parts of an organism stand in some relation 

 to one another, the form and characters of each 

 part being more or less closely dependent on, and 

 connected with, the form and characters of all 

 the rest. In other words, an organism is not a 

 fortuitous collocation of unrelated parts, but is 

 composed of mutually adapted and related organs ; 

 the possession of any given organ, therefore, imply- 

 ing the possession of other "correlated" parts' 

 (Nicholson and Lydekker). Hence the palaeontolo- 

 gist can often infer from an isolated organ or struc- 

 ture the essential characters of the remainder of 

 the organism. But, while the biological sciences 

 have greatly benefited, it is geology which has been 

 most advanced by pahvontological research. With- 

 out the help of fossils the geologist would be unable 

 to reconstruct the past. By their aid he is able to 

 identify and correlate the various formations which 

 constitute his systems. It is from them that he 

 infers former climatic and geographical changes 

 that he is able to distinguish between fresh- 

 water and marine, shallow-water and deep-sea 

 conditions, &c. But for the general relations of 

 pahcontology to geological research the reader is 

 referred to the article GEOLOGY. Some account of 

 the palaeontology of the stratified or fossiliferous 

 rocks will be found in the articles that deal with 

 the various geological systems. Here all that need 

 l>e done is to summarise the characteristic features 

 of the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, Cainozoic, and Quater- 

 nary or Post-Tertiary faunas and floras. 



