LIVING' AND FOSSIL FISHES. 369 



ning, made it ^ " impossible to refer the first 

 inhabitants of the earth to a few stocks, sub- 

 sequently differentiated under the influence 

 of external conditions of existence." . . . He 

 adds : ^ "I have elsewhere presented my views 

 upon the development through which the suc- 

 cessive creations have passed during the his- 

 tory of our planet. But what I wish to prove 

 here, by a careful discussion of the facts re- 

 ported in the following pages, is the truth of 

 the law now so clearly demonstrated in the 

 series of vertebrates, that the successive crea- 

 tions have undergone phases of development 

 analogous to those of the embryo in its growth 

 and similar to the gradations shown by the 

 present creation in the ascending series, which 

 it presents as a whole. One may consider it 

 as henceforth proved that the embryo of the 

 fish during its development, the class of fishes 

 as it at present exists in its numerous families, 

 and the type of fish in its planetary history, 

 exhibit analogous phases through which one 

 may follow the same creative thought like a 

 guiding thread in the study of the connection 



^ Introduction to the Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge, 

 p. 21. 



2 Introduction to the Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Grh Rouge^ 

 p. 24. 



VOL 1. 24 



