R [.COGNITION OF FOSSILS. 49 



class Mammalia, includes a small number of large animal? 

 the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Tapir, Hippopotamus, &c. which 

 stand completely apart, as it were, from each other, not being 

 connected by intermediate forms. But these forms are abun- 

 dantly supplied by the numerous species, of whose former exist- 

 ence we have ample evidence. 



29. The principles on which most of the leading forms have 

 been constructed, in the higher classes at least, are now so well 

 understood, that the Zoologist has no difficulty in determining 

 the general characters, habits, &c., of the animals which long since 

 tenanted the globe and its waters ; from the comparison of the 

 structure of their hard parts, with those of the existing species to 

 which they are most nearly related. And so far may he carry 

 this reasoning, that, from the extremity of a single bone, he may 

 re-construct, as it were, in his imagination, the entire animal ; 

 and may form an accurate judgment of its size, figure, conforma- 

 tion, and even of its habits. This has been often tested by the 

 discovery of perfect skeletons of animals, which had been pre- 

 viously known only from small fragments, but of which a very 

 complete account had been given from these by a sagacious 

 Naturalist. For the development of this important principle, 

 the Science is indebted above all t< iie immortal Cuvier, whose 

 future reputation will be founded much more upon his researches 

 into the History of Fossil Remains, than upon his Zoological 

 Classification, which is continually undergoing great modification. 

 By the late microscopic inquiries of Professor Owen, it has been 

 shown that the minute structure of the teeth of Vertebrata is 

 capable of affording characters of the most important nature in 

 the determination of fossil animals ; often supplying the means 

 of ascertaining, by the examination of an unformed fragment of 

 a tooth, not merely the class and order, but even the family and 

 sometimes the genus, to which the animal belonged. Prof. 

 Quekett has shown that similar inferences may be drawn from 

 the minute structure of the bones of Vertebrata ; and the Author 

 has arrived at like results, from the examination of the shells of 

 Mollusks and Echinoderms. 



