THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF 

 THE ANIMAL WORLD 



BOOK I 



THE FIKST PERIODS OF PALAEONTOLOGY 



CHAPTEE I 



EARLY HYPOTHESES 



Plastic force Theories of the Flood The inventory of fossil 

 remains. 



THE hypotheses designed to explain the manifold 

 and astounding transformations of the animal king- 

 dom during the various ages of the earth are of 

 a relatively recent date, and could only assume a 

 really scientific form with the aid of the very modern 

 progress of that science dealing with the study 

 of early beings which has received the name of 

 Palceontology . 



The Greeks and Romans were acquainted, as we 

 see in Herodotus, Strabo, and Ovid, with the presence 

 of shells left by the sea in the interior of continents, 

 but were unable to draw from it any conclusion other 

 than that of the displacement of the foreshore. 

 As to the origin of these shells and petrified fish, 



3 



