IX. 



PALAEONTOLOGY AND THE DOCTEINE OF 

 EVOLUTION. 



(THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 

 FOR 1870.) 



IT is now eight years since, in the absence of the late 

 Mr. Leonard Homer, who then presided over us, it fell 

 to my lot, as one of the Secretaries of this Society, to 

 draw up the customary Annual Address. I availed 

 myself of the opportunity to endeavour to "take stock" 

 of that portion of the science of biology which is com- 

 monly called " palaeontology/' as it then existed ; and, 

 discussing one after another the doctrines held by palae- 

 ontologists, I put before you the results of my attempts 

 to sift the well-established from the hypothetical or the 

 doubtful. Permit me briefly to recall to your minds 

 what those results were: 



1. The living population of all parts of the earth's 

 surface which have yet been examined has undergone a 

 succession of changes which, upon the whole, have been 

 of a slow and gradual character. 



2. When the fossil remains which are the evidences of 

 these successive changes, as they have occurred in any 

 two more or less distant parts of the surface of the earth, 

 are compared, they exhibit a certain broad and general 



