QO EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



a great amount of positive evidence has been accu- 

 mulated. But the subject is still in an unsatisfac- 

 tory condition, and in spite of all advance the chief 

 difficulties occurring to Darwin and others thirty 

 years ago have not been removed, but stand out as 

 boldly as ever. The evidence collected has, it is 

 true, added very much positive evidence in support 

 of the general theory, and in many cases we now 

 have practical proof of the gradual origin of species 

 from each other. But even yet there is not the 

 slightest difficulty for any one so inclined to point 

 out many places where paleontology disagrees with 

 the deductions of evolution, for the past history of 

 the world as taught by its fossils still offers many 

 difficulties to the descent theory. 



Imperfection of the Record. 



It has been clearly recognized by all scientists, 

 that it is absolutely impossible to reconcile paleon- 

 tology with evolution, unless it be assumed, to start 

 with, that the history of animals which we get from 

 fossils is extremely imperfect. According to evolu- 

 tion, our present species are descended from others, 

 quite different from them, living in the past. Not 

 long ago, the various species of our now existing 

 genera were simply varieties of an ancestral spe- 

 cies. Still earlier, the genera of our present families 

 were in turn only varieties of a still older ancestral 

 species. The present orders and classes also ought 

 gradually to converge toward some very ancient 

 generalized ancestor. All of this history has been a 

 continual slow growth, according to the ordinary con- 



