108 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



and paradoxical comparisons between groups which 

 have nothing in common, and even on a great num- 

 ber of the concatenations pointed out by Gaudry 

 with regard to the Tertiary Mammals. Nearly all 

 these pretended pedigrees, built up on the de- 

 ceptive appearances of the modification of a single 

 organ by functional adaptations, are artificial, 

 inexact, and unable to bear examination in the 

 light of knowledge already acquired on the real 

 evolution of these groups. Notwithstanding these 

 too numerous errors, it must be acknowledged that 

 Gaudry's works on philosophical palaeontology 

 have spread over the history of the evolution of 

 animals a certain poetical charm which renders 

 the reading of these works easy and attractive, and 

 has largely contributed to the diffusion of the 

 transformist doctrine in Prance. 



