The Evolution of Organisms 151 



Let me quote a paragraph — freely translated from 

 Gaudry : 



"The organic world as a whole has made progress. 

 Suppose a voyager on the oceans of ages; in the Cam- 

 brian times his barque meets trilobites, but no fishes; he 

 nears the shore, and there is the silence of death. After 

 long voyaging he finds himself at the end of the Primary 

 era; fishes have replaced trilobites, and on land there is 

 no longer silence. Here is the tramp and cry of reptiles 

 who prophesy the advent of warm-blooded vertebrates. 

 The traveller sails from age to age, and reaches the middle 

 of the Secondary era. Charmingly beautiful ammonites 

 play around his vessel, legions of belemnites mingle with 

 them; ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and teleosaurs follow his 

 track. He goes ashore, and the giant deinosaurs resting 

 on their tails open their huge arms; pterodactyls and 

 other dragons swoop aloft j the first bird tries its wings, 

 and some small mammals show face timidly. Nature, 

 marvellous in the Primary ages, has become yet more 

 marvellous; it has made progress. If our traveller be not 

 fatigued with his long wanderings, he will find in the 

 Tertiary ages the first monkeys and horses, and a thou- 

 sand other mammals. Later on he will find himself — the 

 man — artist and poet — minister and interpreter of nature 

 — the man who thinks and prays. Truly, the history of 

 the world as a whole is the history of a progressive evolu- 

 tion. Where will this solution lead us?" 



Looking back again at the more than plausibly 

 worked-out history of backboned animals, we see 

 that the evolution is marked by a progressive differ- 

 entiation of the nervous system, and that the use 

 made of this is to adapt the organism more per- 



