HOMOTAXIS 267 



Huxley, indeed, wished to expunge the word " contempo- 

 raneous " from the vocabulary of the geologist, and 

 proposed to substitute for it a new term, " homotaxis," 

 which could be used without involving unwarranted as- 

 sumptions. To say that the Silurian beds of North 

 America are homotaxial with those of Europe is simply a 

 statement of fact, since their position in the succession 

 of stratified rocks is the same in both countries ; they 

 overlie similar systems below, and are succeeded by similar 

 systems above, but to speak of them as contemporaneous 

 involves assumptions and begs the question. 



One cannot help wondering how the Fellows of the 

 Geological Society received these arguments, which were 

 provided for them on the encouraging occasion of the 

 President's annual address. One can imagine the effect if 

 the President of a Historical Society, after congratulating 

 his hearers on the interests and importance of their 

 studies, had proceeded to point out certain theoretical 

 difficulties which affected their procedure, say, in the 

 treatment of dates. We may suppose him to argue that, 

 considering the imperfect means of communication which 

 existed in these Islands before the establishment of the 

 penny post and the introduction of telegrams, there was 

 at least a possibility that the commencement and termi- 

 nation of the reigns of our English kings were not 

 simultaneous over the whole extent of their dominion, 

 and that it was conceivable, nay, on the whole rather 

 likely, that while a Stuart was seated on the throne in 

 London, a Tudor might have been reigning in Cornwall, 

 and a Plantagenet in the Scilly Isles. If, further, he had 

 been able to support so disturbing a suggestion by good 

 reasons, it is to be feared the Fellows of the Society 

 might have been tempted to abandon the study of history 

 for some more promising pursuit. It does not appear, 

 however, that this argument as applied to geology excited 



