PROFESSOR PICTET's OPINIONS. 157 



one of the first men of science in Europe to those 

 British savans who regard a greater plication of 

 the enamel in a horse's tooth, or a ridge on a tur- 

 binated shell, or a spot on a butterfly's wing, as 

 the proof of a special interference of that Deity 

 who wheeled the orbs into space by a tranquil 

 expression of his will. But M. Pictet must him- 

 self revise his opinions. He must quickly perceive 

 that the rule which he lays down for there being 

 no new creation since the diluvial epoch is equally 

 conclusive against new creations at any anterior 

 time. There is a persistency of certain shells 

 since the beginning of the tertiaries ; if, then, the 

 moles and badgers Le, in any degree, a proof that 

 the present bear is a modification of the Ursus 

 Priscus, so also are these shells a proof that all 

 the present mammals are modifications of those of 

 the eocene. Several shells, again, of the secondary 

 formation straggling into tertiaries, are not less 

 conclusive, in rigid reasoning, that all the tertiary 

 species were descended from the secondary, 

 although the wide, unrepresented interval at that 

 point, allowed of a greater transition of forms. 

 In short, the whole of the divisions constructed by 

 geologists upon the supposition of extensive intro- 

 ductions of totally new vehicles of life, must give 



