VON ZITTEL'S "HANDBUCH" 111 



the history of the group, its origin in time, its evo- 

 lution in the series of ages, and its most probable 

 genetic relations with its ancestral forms and its 

 kindred branches. And here most strikingly ap- 

 pear the masterly qualities which, to my mind, 

 give to the work of the Munich professor a character 

 of precision, one might say of scientific honesty, 

 which is really admirable. On the one hand there 

 is the boldness necessary to attack in front and fear- 

 lessly the always delicate and sometimes insoluble 

 problems raised by palaeontological evolution ; on 

 the other, the critical mind and the wise reserve 

 which guard us against hasty or risky solutions, 

 and are not ashamed to acknowledge our ignorance, 

 temporary as it is, of the most fundamental data 

 of this evolution. 



The mind of Zittel was at root in sympathy 

 this is clearly shown in all his work with the 

 transformist ideas. He did not refuse to recognize 

 the great idea of unity in the plan of creation, nor 

 to set forth the facts which militate in favour of 

 the genetic relations of classes, orders, families, 

 and genera, when these relations appeared to 

 him to stand out clearly from their succession 

 in time and their morphological characters. To 

 compare new forms with those already described, 

 to study their genetic relations, their descent, and 

 their ulterior evolution is, in his opinion, the 

 supreme and final goal of palaeontology. 



But this theoretical starting-point once ad- 

 mitted, we must honour Zittel for having been 

 one of the first to utter with unquestionable com- 

 petence a warning cry against the sorry exaggera- 



