II 



THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF 

 PALAEONTOLOGY 



[1881] 



THAT application of the sciences of biology and 

 geology, which is commonly known as palaeon- 

 tology,^ took its origin in the mind of the first 

 person who, finding something like a shell, or a 

 bone, naturally imbedded in gravel or rock, in- 

 dulged in speculations upon the nature of this 

 thing which he had dug out this "fossil" and 

 upon the causes which had brought it into such a 

 position. In this rudimentary form, a high anti- 

 quity may safely be ascribed to palaeontology, 

 inasmuch as we know that, 500 years before the 

 Christian era, the philosophic doctrines of Xeno- 

 phanes were influenced by his observations upon 

 the fossil remains exposed in the quarries of 

 Syracuse. From this time forth not only the 

 philosophers, but the poets, the historians, the 

 geographers of antiquity occasionally refer to 

 fossils ; and, after the revival of learning, lively 

 controversies arose respecting their real nature. 



