494 



NATURE 



{Sept. 1 8, 1879 



trodes for physiological research (Bowditch) ; Triassic rocks of 

 New Jersey (Cook) ; Geological action of the acid of humus 

 (Julien) ; Anatomy of the cat's brain (Wilder) ; Anthracite coal- 

 fields of Pennsylvania, and their rapid exhaustion (Sheafer) ; De- 

 velopment of neuration in the wings of insects (Scudder). In 

 sub-Section C : Reduction of carbonic acid by phosphorus at 

 ordinary temperature (Leeds) ; Deterioration of library bindings 

 (Nichols) ; Variations in temperature and chemical character of 

 the water of Fresh Pond, Mass. (Nichols) ; Revision of the 

 atomic weights (Clarke) ; Results of systematic analysis of air 

 (Morley) ; Meteorological conditions of beet-root culture (McMur- 

 trie). In sub-Section E : Superstitions of ancient inhabitants 

 of the Mississippi valley relative to rabbits, serpents, owls, 

 &c. (Henderson) ; Archaeological notes from Japan (Morse) ; 

 Ethnical influences of physical geography (Wilson) ; The sign 

 language of the North American Indians (Mulbery) ; Archaeo- 

 logy of the Champlain valley (Perkins) ; Ethnology of the 

 islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans (Bickmore) ; Pottery 

 and stone implements of the southern mound-builders (Putnam). 

 Excursions were arranged to Luzerne, Lake George, Ausable 

 Chasm, Howe's Cave, Montreal, Rutland, Port Henry, and 

 Plattsburgh. On presentation of certificates, members could 

 make free use of the wires of the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company. They could also purchase at nominal rates tickets 

 entitling them to all the privileges of the Congress Spring Park, 

 day or night. 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF PAL^ONTO- 

 LOGICAL DISCOVERY "^ 



T N the rapid progress of knowledge, we are constantly brought 

 face to face with the question. What is Life? The answer 

 is not yet, but a thousand earnest seekers after truth seem to 

 be slowly approaching a solution. This question gives a new 

 interest to every department of science that relates to life in any 

 form, and the history of life offers a most suggestive field for 

 research. One line of investigation lies through embryology, 

 and here the advance is most encouraging. Another promising 

 path leads back through the life history of the globe, and in 

 this direction we may hope for increasing light, as a reward for 

 patient work. 



The plants and animals now living on the earth interest alike 

 the savage and the savant, and hence have been carefully 

 observed in every age of human history. The life of the 

 remote past, however, is preserved only in scanty records, 

 buried in the earth, and therefore readily escapes attention. 

 For these reasons, the study of ancient life is one of the latest 

 of modern sciences, and among the most difficult. In view of 

 the great advances which this department of knowledge has 

 made within the last decade, especially in this country, I have 

 thought it fitting to the present occasion to review briefly 

 its development, and have chosen for my subject this even- 

 ing, The History and Methods of Palaontological 

 Discovery. 



In the "short time now at my command, I can only attempt 

 to present a rapid sketch of the principal steps in the progress 

 of this science. The literature of the subject, especially in 

 connection with the discussions it provoked, is voluminous, 

 and an outline of the history itself must suffice for my present 

 purpose. 



In looking over the records of palaeontology, its history may 

 conveniently be divided into four periods, well marked by 

 prominent features, but, like all stages of intellectual growth, 

 without definite boundaries. 



The first period, dating back to the time when men first noticed 

 fossil remains in the rocks, and queried as to their nature, is of 

 special interest in this connection. The most prominent charac- 

 teristic of this period was .1 long and bitter contest as to the 

 nature of fossil remains. Were they mere "sports of Nature," 

 or had they once been endowed with life? Simple as this 

 problem now seems, centuries passed before the wise men of 

 that time were agreed upon its solution. 



Sea shells in the solid rocks on the tops of mountains early 

 attracted the attention of the ancients, and the learned men 



^ An Address, delivered before the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, at Saratoga, N.Y., August 28, 1879, by Prof. O. C. 

 Marsh, President. 



among them seem to have appreciated in some instances 

 their true character, and given rational explanations of their 

 presence. 



Tlie philosopher Zenophanes, of Colophon, who lived about 

 500 B.C., mentions the remains of fishes and other animals in 

 the stone quarries near Syracuse ; the impression of an anchovy 

 in the rock of Paros, and various marine fossils at other places. 

 His conclusion from these facts was, that the surface of the 

 earth had once been in a soft condition at the bottom of the 

 sea ; and thus the objects mentioned were entombed. Herodotus, 

 half a century later, speaks of marine shells on the hills of 

 Egypt, and over the Libyan desert, and he inferred therefrom 

 that the sea had once covered that whole region. Empedocles, 

 of Agrigentum (450 B.C.), believed that the many^hippopotamus 

 bones found in Sicily were remains of human giants, in compari- 

 son with which the present race were as children. Here, he 

 thought, was a battle-field between the gods and the Titans, and 

 the bones belonged to the slain. Pythagoras (582 B.C.) had 

 already anticipated one conclusion of modern geology, if 

 the following statement, attributed to him by Ovid, was his 

 own : ^ 



Vidi ego quod fuerat solidissima tellus. 

 Esse fretum ; vidi factas ex aequore terras : 

 Et procul a pelago conchae jacuere marinae. 



Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was not only aware of the existence 

 of fossils in the rocks, but has also placed on record sagacious 

 views as to the changes in the earth's sm-face necessary to account 

 for them. In the second book of his meteorics, he says : 

 ' ' The changes of the earth are so slow in comparison to the 

 duration of our lives, that they are overlooked ; and the migra- 

 tions of people after great catastrophes and their removal to other 

 regions, cause the event to be forgotten." Again, in the same 

 work, he says : "As time never fails, and the universe is eternal, 

 neither the Tanais, nor the Nile, can have flowed for ever. 

 The places where they rise were once dry, and there is a limit to 

 their operations : but there is none to time. So of all other 

 rivers; they spring up and they perish; and the sea also continually 

 deserts some lands and invades others. The same tracts, there 

 fore, of the earth are not, some always sea, and others always 

 continents, but everything changes in the course of time." 



Aristotle's views on the subject of spontaneous generation 

 were less sound, and his doctrines on this subject exerted a 

 powerful influence for the succeeding twenty centiuries. In the 

 long discussion that followed concerning the nature of fossi) 

 remains, Aris-totle's views were paramount. He believed that 

 animals could originate from moist earth or the slime of rivers, 

 and this seemed to the people of that period a much simpler 

 way of accounting for the remains of animals in the rocks than 

 the marvellous changes of sea and land otherwise required to 

 explain their presence. Aristotle's opinion was in accordance 

 with the Biblical account of the creation of man out ot the dust 

 of the earth, and hence more readily obtained credence. 



Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, alludes to fossil fishes 

 found near Heraclea in Pontus, and in Paphlagonia, and says : 

 " They were either developed from fish spawn left behind in 

 the earth, or gone astray from rivers or the sea into cavities of 

 the earth, where they had become petrified." In treating of 

 fossil ivory and bones, the same writer supposed them to be pro- 

 duced by a certain plastic virtue latent in the earth. To this 

 same cause, as we shall see, many later authors attributed the 

 origin of all fossil remains. 



Previous to this, Anaximander, the Miletian philosopher, who 

 was born about 6lo years before Christ, had expressed essentially 

 the same view. According to both Plutarch and Censorinus, 

 Anaximander taught that fishes, or animals very like fishes, 

 sprang from heated water and earth, and from these animals 

 came the hnman race ; a statement which can hardly be con- 

 sidered as anticipating the modern idea of evolution, as some 

 authors have imagined. 



The Romans added but little to the knowledge possessed by 

 the Greeks in regard to fossil remains. Pliny (23-79 A.D.), 

 however, seems to have examined such objects with interest, and 

 in his renowned work on Natural History gave names to several 

 forms. He doubtless borrowed largely from Theophrastus, who 

 wrote about three hundred years before. Among the objects 

 named by Pliny were, " Bucariiia, like to an ox's heart ;" " Bran- 

 tia, resembling the head of a tortoise, supposed to fall in thunder- 

 storms ; " " Glossoptra, similar to a human tongue which does 

 not g^ow in the earth, but falls from heaven while the moon is 

 ' " Metamorphoses," Liber xv., 262. 



