132 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [LECT. V. 



Nature has, undoubtedly, touched up the form of even 

 the small conservative remnants of that old Fauna ; the 

 Hedgehog, the Mole, and the Shrew ; the Colugo, the 

 Tenrec, and the Tupaia ; each of these has its own style 

 of beauty, and its own most perfect adaptation to its sur- 

 roundings. That the old quasi-insectivorous types were 

 the root-stock out of which the higher Eutheria arose 

 is made probable by a remarkable fact, namely, to 

 quote Professor Huxley, that "numerous Lemurs, 

 with marked ungulate characters, are being discovered 

 in the older Tertiaries of the United States, and else- 

 where." 



Further, to continue my quotation "No one can 

 study the more ancient mammals with which we are 

 already acquainted, without being constantly struck 

 with the insectivorous characters which they present. 

 In fact, there is nothing in the dentition of either 

 Primates, Carnivora, or Ungulates, which is not fore- 

 shadowed in the Insectivora ; and I am not aware that 

 there is any means of deciding whether a given fossil 

 skeleton, with skull, teeth, and limbs almost complete, 

 ought to be ranged with the Lemurs, the Insectivora, 

 the Carnivora, or the Ungulates " (Proc. Zool. Soc., 

 1880, p. 651). 



In severe scientific research it is dangerous to take 

 things upon trust, yet nothing could have been more 

 opportune, to me, than the appearance of the paper 

 I have now quoted, just as I was beginning to work 



