WHAT IS DARWINISM? 157 



worms, cuttle-fish, snails, jelly-fish, star-fish, 

 oysters, the polyps lived contemporaneously 

 with the first known vertebrate animals that 

 ever came into being — all as clearly defined 

 by unmistakable ordinal or special characters 

 asrthey are at the present moment."^ 



The foot of the horse is considered by zoolo- 

 gists as " one of the most beautiful contrivances 

 in nature." The remains of this animal found 

 in what is called the Pliocene Period, show the 

 foot to have been as perfect then as it is now. 



Mr. Wallace says that man has existed on 

 the earth a hundred thousand years, and that 

 it is probable that he existed four hundred 

 thousand years ago. Of course we do not be- 

 lieve this. We have little faith in the chronol- 

 ogy of science. It gives no sure data for the 

 calculation of time, hence we find them differ- 

 ing from four thousand to four hundred thou- 

 sand years as to the time required for certain 

 formations. The most trustworthy geologists 



1 Dr. Bree, p. 275. We presume geologists differ in the terms 

 which they use to designate strata. Agassiz calls the oldest 

 containing fossil, the sub-Cambrian. Principal Dawson calls the 

 oldest the Laurentian, and places the first vertebrates in the 

 Silurian. This is of no moment as to the argument. The im- 

 portant fact is that each species is distinct as soon as it appears ; 

 and that many have remained to the present time. 



