CUVIER AND THE RISE OF PALEONTOLOGY 97 



bones of two genera of ungulates very different from 

 any of recent times. One resembled the rhinoceros, 

 tapir, and horse in being odd-toed ; this he called 

 Palaeotherium. Another had the hind-foot even-toed, 

 like a ruminant, though the fore-foot, with which he 

 was imperfectly acquainted, showed points of resem- 

 blance to the other group. How cautiously he did his 

 work may be gathered from the fact that he spent 

 fifteen years upon the collection of facts before he 

 attempted to restore these extinct forms, though almost 

 every bone in their bodies had during that time passed 

 through his hands. 



The great interest of these fossil ungulates to the 

 modern biologist is that they are relatively primitive 

 types of the order. Palaeotherium is not far from the 

 ideal common ancestor of the rhinoceros, tapir, and 

 horse ; Anoplotherium not altogether unlike the ideal 

 common ancestor of the hippopotamus, the swine, and 

 the ruminants. It has been suspected that Cuvier was 

 less obstinately devoted to the tenet of fixity of species 

 than he was willing to admit in public. Whatever his 

 private leanings may have been, he stood out resolutely 

 for cogent proofs of transmutation. When it was con- 

 tended that the Palaeothere might have been the remote 

 ancestor of existing ungulates, he demanded that the 

 intermediate links should be produced. His demand 

 could not be met till many years later, though inter- 

 mediate forms between the Palaeothere and the horse 

 have since been furnished in abundance. Reserve about 

 far-reaching deductions was surely wise at a time when 

 plausible speculation was rife, and we ought not to 

 judge Cuvier severely for having aspired to a rigour unat- 

 tainable in a natural science, and certainly not always 

 observed by himself. He hoped to see biology become 



