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ally are to forget this all-important fact. For 

 one of the real lessons which paleontology 

 teaches us is, that if there has been an evolu 

 tion of organic life throughout the past ages, 

 such an evolution must have taken place with 

 out progress of any kind. We have many or 

 ganic forms existing at the present day which 

 are identical with the earliest which paleontol 

 ogy discloses, and assuredly in these there 

 could not have been advance. Father Was- 

 mann himself tells us that the Baltic tertiary 

 ants are in some cases "identical" with many that 

 exist at present. Surely here there could have 

 been no advance. 



And this was the view of Professor Huxley. 

 Haifa century ago he told us: "The paleozoic 

 age is a long distance off from the present, but 

 the Pleuracanthus of that age, according to the 

 testimony of paleontology, differs no more from 

 our present sharks than these differ from one 

 another." Where, then, is the advance? The 

 same is true of the Ganoid fishes. Where is 

 the progress or advance? The essential char 

 acters of Crocodilia among reptiles of our day 

 are identical with those of the Mesozoic epoch. 



