THE OYSTER. 71 



still further back, Anglo-Saxon and modern German 

 had a common starting-point. Philologists therefore 

 make use of the resemblances between languages to 

 trace out their origin, and whenever they find that two 

 or three languages have a common plan, a funda- 

 mental similarity of grammatical structure, they be- 

 lieve that they are divergent modifications from a com- 

 mon starting-point. In some cases printed language 

 has preserved an actual history of the process, but in 

 other cases, where there is no such history, the student 

 of comparative grammar forms his conclusions by com- 

 parison; and, even where the primitive language is 

 lost, he is able to reconstruct it in part, for he knows 

 that it must have been characterized by all the features 

 which its derivatives have in common. 



Now, animals exhibit resemblances of very much 

 the same character as those between languages, and 

 when we find that several representatives of a great 

 group are constructed upon the same fundamental 

 plan, we infer, just as the philologist does, that they 

 are the divergent descendants of a common ancestor, 

 from whom they have inherited the features which 

 they have in common. 



The philologist is sometimes able to verify his con- 

 clusion by the proofs which have been preserved in 

 books and inscriptions, and he regards this as evidence 

 that, in other cases where no such record is preserved, 

 his results are equally trustworthy. 



Occasionally the student of comparative anatomy, 

 like the student of comparative grammar, finds a fossil 



