CHAPTER XIII 



A GLANCE AT THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF 

 PHILOSOPHICAL PALEONTOLOGY 



THE appearance of the Handbuch der Palceontologie 

 of von Zittel at the dawn of the twentieth century 

 marks a memorable date in the history of the pro- 

 gress of this science. It is truly one of those 

 glorious stages where one rests for a moment to 

 cast a look back on the path traversed before 

 setting out with renewed ardour on the forward 

 march to new progress. 



In the preceding historical sketch we have 

 witnessed, in the course of the past century, the 

 birth of the science of vanished beings and its 

 development. We have seen burst forth, one 

 after the other, general ideas and philosophical 

 hypotheses, some of them destined to a brilliant 

 evolution, others to oblivion. With Georges Cuvier, 

 the real founder of the science of palaeontology, 

 we have witnessed the triumph of the beliefs 

 since abandoned in the fixity of species and in the 

 integral renewal of faunas by the revolutions of 

 the globe ; but we have, at the same time, 

 seen appear, with thrilling clearness, in the 

 writings of the illustrious naturalist, the fruitful 

 ideas of the gradual progress of beings and of the 

 changes of faunas by migration. The hypothesis, 



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