48 THE MAMMALIA. 



a special Irvine direction, it is true), after having 

 satMied liini naliy as to the existence of 



inte: Inn MS between the Palaeotherium and 



'. Cuvier, his teacher, had, however, not 

 the d sired knowledge of these forms. 1 



Since Cuvier's day, i.e. within the last fifty 

 i, and more especially within the last twenty 

 and twenty-live years, our palaeontological know- 

 ledge as a whole, and particularly as regards the 

 Mammalia, has been so immensely extended, that 



1 Owen, in his Anatomy of Vertebrates, General Conclusions, 

 says: 'With this additional knowledge, the question whether 

 actual races may not be modifications of those ancient races 

 which are exemplified by fossil remains, presents itself under 

 very different conditions from those under which it passed before 

 the minds of Cuvier and the Academicians of 1830. If the 

 alternative species by miracle or by law be applied to palaeo- 

 therium, paloplotherium, hipparion, equus, I accept the latter 

 without misgiving, and recognise such law as continuously opera- 

 tive throughout tertiary time.' By law (natural law or secondary 

 cause), however, we understand nothing but a regular and re- 

 curring phenomenon where the acting cause is not touched upon, 

 according to Owen, is the Will of the Creator ; for he adds : 

 ' I believe the horse to have been predestined and prepared for man.' 

 Hence natural law is in this case not opposed to miracle, but denotes 

 merely the manifestation of an Almighty Will working towards 

 a definite purpose. The same view is expressed also by Gaudry 

 in his Com snr Ics Mainmiftrcs (Paris, 1877), where 



he says: 'A mesure que j'ai cherchg a comprendre 1'histoire 

 des etres fossiles, il m'a paru de plus en plus probable que 

 <! n'a pas cree isolement les especes succes- 

 sives des Ages geologiques, mais qu'il les a tirdes les unes des 

 autres.' 



