II PROGRESS OF PALEONTOLOGY SO 



no less important topic of the bearing of geology 

 and of palaeontology upon distribution has been 

 luminously treated in the address of the President 

 of the Geographical Section. 1 



The succession of the species of animals and 

 plants in time being established, the first question 

 which the zoologist or the botanist had to ask him- 

 self was, What is the relation of these successive 

 species one to another ? And it is a curious cir- 

 cumstance that the most important event in the 

 history of palaeontology which immediately suc- 

 ceeded William Smith's generalisation was a dis- 

 covery which, could it have been rightly appreci- 

 ated at the time, would have gone far towards 

 suggesting the answer, which was in fact delayed 

 for more than half a century. I refer to Cuvier's 

 investigation of the mammalian fossils yielded by 

 the quarries in the older tertiary rocks of Mont- 

 martre, among the chief results of which was the 

 bringing to light of two genera of extinct hoofed 

 quadrupeds, the Anoplotherium and the Palceo- 

 therium. The rich materials at Cuvier's dis- 

 position enabled him to obtain a full knowledge of 

 the osteology and of the dentition of these two 

 forms, and consequently to compare their structure 

 critically with that of existing hoofed animals. 

 The effect of this comparison was to prove that 

 the Anoplotherium j though it presented many 

 points of resemblance with the pigs on the one 

 1 Sir J. D. Hooker. 



