232 Miscellaneous. 
all birds; for the first bird must have been brother or cousin to 
some other animal that was not a bird, since there are other animals 
besides birds in this world, to no one of which any bird bears as 
close a relation as it bears to its own class. The same argument 
applies to every other class; and as to the facts, they are fatal to 
such an assumption, for geology teaches us that among the oldest 
inhabitants of our globe known, there are representatives of nine 
distinct classes of animals, which by no possibility can be descendants 
of one another, since they are contemporaries. 
The same line of argument and the same class of facts forbid the 
assumption that either the representatives of one and the same order, 
or those of one of the same family, or those of one of the same genus, 
should be considered as lineal descendants of a common stock ; for 
orders, families, and genera are based upon different categories of 
characters, and not upon more or less extensive characters of the 
same kind, as I have shown years ago (vol. i. pp. 150-163), and 
numbers of different kinds of representatives of these various groups 
make their appearance simultaneously in all the successive geological 
periods. There appear together Corals and Echinoderms of different 
families and of different genera in each successive geological forma- 
tion ; and this is equally true for Bryozoa, Brachiopods, and Lamelli- 
branchiata, for Trilobites and the other Crustacea, in fact for the 
representatives of all the classes of the animal kingdom, making due 
allowance for the period of the first appearance of each; and at all 
times and in all classes the representatives of these different kinds of 
groups are found to present the same definiteness in their charac- 
teristics and limitation. Were the transmutation theory true, the 
geological record should exhibit an uninterrupted succession of types 
blending gradually into one another. The fact is, that throughout 
all geological times each period is characterized by definite specific 
types, belonging to definite genera, and these to definite families, 
referable to definite orders, constituting definite classes and definite 
branches, built upon definite plans. Until, therefore, the facts of 
Nature are shown to have been mistaken by those who have collected 
them, and to have a different meaning from that now generally 
assigned to them, I shall consider the transmutation theory as a 
scientific mistake, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its method, and 
mischievous in its tendency. — Silliman’s American Journal for 
July 1860. 
Note on the Fox of Japan. By Artuur Apams, F.L.S. 
The Fox of Japan is quite a distinct species from that of China, 
specimens of which I procured on the banks of the Wusung River, 
near its junction with the Yang-tze-kiang. The Japanese species, 
four skins of which were obtained by Mr. Bedwell from Niegata in 
Niphon, has black ears lined with white, and a black spot on the 
upper surface near the base of the tail. The fur on the neck and 
back is ferruginous, and is much softer and longer than that of the 
Foxes of Europe and China; and the brush is also longer and thicker. 
—Proc. Zool. Soc. March 27, 1860. 
