DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 69 



fresh discoveries. In as far as it is so, it only 

 teaches that we are not to be too confident in 

 drawing inferences either for or against the theory 

 of development from the particidar succession in 

 which the orders of the reptilia occur in those early 

 strata where their remains and vestiges are few. In 

 as far as it may be taken as a positive fact, I only 

 claim a modified benefit from it, because the view 

 which I take of the affinities and connexions of 

 the animal kingdom (and by analogy of the vege- 

 table kingdom also) makes it a matter of less 

 consequence than would be generally supposed, 

 which order of any class appears first in the stone 

 record, though still perhaps a matter of some con- 

 sequence. 



This view suggests that development has not 

 proceeded, as is usually assumed, upon a single 

 line which would require all the orders of animals 

 to be placed one after another, but in a plurality 

 of lines in which the orders, and even minuter sub- 

 divisions, of each class, are ranged side hy side. It 

 also suggests that the development of these various 

 lines has proceeded independently in various 

 regions of the earth, so as to lead to forms not 

 everj-where so like as to fall within our ideas of 

 specific character, but generally, or in some more 



