DARWINISM IN ENGLAND. 107 



the careful collection and comparison of examples of the type 

 throughout the entire extent of its geographical and geological 

 range, and (2) that a very considerable amount of geiieric con- 

 tinuity existed between the fauna and flora of successive strata, 

 extending in all probability to what are known as representative 

 species ; as well as to types between which the gradational 

 passage could be shown to be complete. These doctrines I 

 myself strongly advocated in the first of the memoirs on Fora- 

 minifera (entirely devoted to the genus Orbitolites), which I 

 have presented at various times to the Royal Society ; and 

 I therein cited, in support of them, the experience of several of 

 my most esteemed brother-naturalists, whose views on this 

 question were altogether in accordance with my own. And if 

 these doctrines be admitted, it becomes obvious that the range 

 of any true species in geological time would be determined only 

 by the degree of its capacity to accommodate itself to changes 

 in the conditions of its existence; and that there is no a priori 

 reason why marine types having a large capacity of this kind 

 should not maintain their existence through a long succession 

 of epochs. That existing species of mollusca are met with even 

 in the earliest Tertiary strata, and in increasing proportion in 

 the later, had been demonstrated by M. Deshayes, and made by 

 Sir C. Lyell the foundation of his classification of the Tertiary 

 series. That numerous types of Foraminifera and Diatomacese 

 characteristic of the Cretaceous period are existing at the present 

 time, had been shown by Professor Ehrenberg. And Messrs. 

 Parker and Rupert Jones had shown the identity of even Triassic 

 Foraminifera with types still inhabiting the Mediterranean. 



However limited in scope were these pre-Darwinian views, 

 as compared with those developed in the " Origin of Species," 

 they had taken the same direction, and in some degree pre- 

 pared the way for their reception ; as had also an application of 

 Von Baer's great doctrine of Development from the General to the 

 Special^ which was first (I believe) put forward by Professor 

 Broun, and which I myself worked out (in ignorance of his 

 having already done so) in the third edition of my " General 

 and Comparative Physiology." For I there dwelt upon several 

 cases in which the earlier forms of certain great types presented 



