HISTORICAL GEOLOGY 109 



extinct forms, and later on that there was a succession 

 of wholly extinct faunas. This at first puzzling phenom- 

 enon he finally came to explain by assuming that the 

 earth had gone through a series of catastrophes, of which 

 the Deluge was the most recent but possibly not the last. 

 With each catastrophe all life was blotted out, and a new 

 thoiigh improved set of organisms was created by divine 

 acts. The Cuvierian theory of catastrophism was widely 

 accepted during the first half of the nineteenth century, 

 and in America Louis Agassiz was long its greatest 

 exponent. It was this theory and the dominance of the 

 brilliant Cuvier, not only in science but socially as well, 

 that blotted out the. far more correct views of the more 

 philosophical Lamarck, who held that life throughout the 

 ages had been continuous and that through individual 

 effort and the inheritance of acquired characters had 

 evolved the wonderful diversity of the present living 

 world. 



In 1830 there was a public debate at Paris between 

 Cuvier and Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, the one holding to the 

 views of the fixity of species and creation, the other that 

 life is continuous and evolves into better adapted forms. 

 Cuvier, a gifted speaker and the greatest debater zoology 

 ever had, with an extraordinary memory that never 

 failed him, defeated Saint-Hilaire in each day's debate, 

 although the latter was in the right. 



A book that did a great deal to prepare the English- 

 speaking people for the coming of evolution was "Ves- 

 tiges of Creation," published in 1844 by an unknown 

 author. In Darwin's opinion, ' ' the work, from its power- 

 ful and brilliant style . . . has done excellent service 

 ... in thus preparing the ground for the reception of 

 analogous views." This book was recommended to the 

 readers of the Journal (48, 395, 1845) with the editorial 

 remark that "we cannot subscribe to all of the author's 

 views." 



We can probably best illustrate the opinions of Amer- 

 icans on the question of evolution just before the appear- 

 ance of Darwin's great work by directing attention to 

 James D. Dana's Thoughts on Species (24, 305, 1857). 

 After reading this article and others of a similar nature 

 by Agassiz, one comes to the opinion that unconsciously 



