LECTURES ON EVOLUTION 

 III 



THE DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION 



THE occurrence of historical facts is said to be 

 demonstrated, when the evidence that they hap- 

 pened is of such a character as to render the as- 

 sumption that they did not happen in the highest 

 degree improbable ; and the question I now have 

 to deal with is, whether evidence in favour of the 

 evolution of animals of this degree of cogency is, 

 or is not, obtainable from the record of the suc- 

 cession of living forms which is presented to us 

 by fossil remains. 



Those who have attended to the progress of 

 palaeontology are aware that evidence of the char- 

 acter which I have denned has been produced in 

 considerable and continually-increasing quantity 

 during the last few years. Indeed, the amount 

 and the satisfactory nature of that evidence are 

 somewhat surprising, when we consider the con- 

 ditions under which alone we can hope to ob- 

 tain it. 



