320 APPENDIX 



and synthetic character of such forms as Cryptozoon, 

 ReceptacuHtes, and Archaeocyathus, and their associ- 

 ation with generaHzed types of Crustaceans and 

 Brachiopods, we can scarcely fail to perceive that 

 at the base of the Palaeozoic we are leaving the 

 reign of the higher marine invertebrates, and enter- 

 ing on a domain where lower and probably Proto- 

 zoan forms must be dominant, and so are getting at 

 least within calculable distance of the beginnings of 



life. 



F. Pre-Geological Evolution. 



Reference is incidentally made in the text to the 

 doctrine implied in the old notion of successive 

 cataclysms and renewals of the earth, held by 

 some ancient mythologies and philosophies, and 

 revived in a slightly different form by Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, in connection with the requirements of the 

 Darwinian evolution by natural selection. This 

 primitive idea was illustrated at considerable length 

 by Professor Poulton in his address as President of 

 the Zoological Section of the British Association at 

 its meeting in Liverpool (September, 1896). In this 

 new and ably presented form, it deserves some notice 



