366 PALEONTOLOGY AND EVOLUTION XI 



as simple as the Amphioxus, I can only repeat 

 that it is appalling to speculate upon the extent 

 to which that origin must have preceded the 

 epoch of the first recorded appearance of verte- 

 brate life. 



Such is the further commentary which I have 

 to offer upon the statement of the chief results of 

 palaeontology which I formerly ventured to lay 

 before you. 



But the growth of knowledge in the interval 

 makes me conscious of an omission of considerable 

 moment in that statement, inasmuch as it contains 

 no reference to the bearings of palaeontology upon 

 the theory of the distribution of life ; nor takes 

 note of the remarkable manner in which the facts 

 of distribution, in present and past times, accord 

 with the doctrine of evolution, especially in regard 

 to land animals. 



That connection between palaeontology and 

 geology and the present distribution of terrestrial 

 animals, which so strikingly impressed Mr. Darwin, 

 thirty years ago, as to lead him to speak of a " law 

 of succession of types," and of the wonderful re- 

 lationship on the same continent between the 

 dead and the living, has recently received much 

 elucidation from the researches of Gaudry, of 

 Rlitimeyer, of Leidy, and of Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards, taken in connection with the earlier 

 labours of our lamented colleague Falconer ; and 



