48 THE MAMMALIA. 



a special Divine direction, it is true), after having 

 satisfied himself personally as to the existence of 

 intermediate forms between the Palaeotherium and 

 Horse. Cuvier, his teacher, had, however, not 

 the desired knowledge of these forms. 1 



Since Cuvier's day, i.e. within the last fifty 

 years, and more especially within the last twenty 

 and twenty-five years, our palaeontological know- 

 ledge as a whole, and particularly as regards the 

 Mammalia, has been so immensely extended, that 



1 Owen, in his Anatomy of Vertebrates, General Conclusions, 

 says : * With this additional knowledge, the question whether 

 actual races may not be modifications of those ancient races 

 which are exemplified by fossil remains, presents itself under 

 very different conditions from those under which it passed before 

 the minds of Cuvier and the Academicians of 1830. If the 

 alternative species by miracle or by law be applied to palaBo- 

 therium, paloplotherium, hipparion, equus, I accept the latter 

 without misgiving, and recognise such law as continuously opera- 

 tive throughout tertiary time.' By law (natural law or secondary 

 cause), however, we understand nothing but a regular and re- 

 curring phenomenon where the acting cause is not touched upon. 

 This, according to Owen, is the Will of the Creator ; for he adds : 

 ' I believe the horse to have been predestined and prepared for man.' 

 Hence natural law is in this case not opposed to miracle, but denotes 

 merely the manifestation of an Almighty Will working towards 

 a definite purpose. The same view is expressed also by Gaudry 

 in his Considerations sur les Mammiftres (Paris, 1877), where 

 he says: 'A mesure que j'ai cherch6 a comprendre 1'histoire 

 des e"tres fossiles, il m'a paru de plus en plus probable que 

 1'Auteur du monde n'a pas cr66 iso!6ment les especes succes- 

 sives des ages geologiques, mais qu'il les a tire'es les unes des 

 autres.' 



